"     '•    ••"•  '-        '••       V        -/C.     .-\.__^\^J 


•sir*. 


-  £ 


MISS    ALICE    E.    FREEMAN. 


^SUCCESSFUL  WOMEN 


BY 

SARAH   K  BOLTON 

Author  of 

How  Success  is  Won 
Social  Studies  in  England 

and  others 


WITH  PORTRAITS 


BOSTON 
D    LOTHROP    COMPANY 

FRANKLIN    AND    HAWLEY    STREETS 


COPYRIGHT,  1888 

BY 

D.  LOTHROP  COMPANY. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

JULIET  CORSON 9 

CHAPTER   II. 

MARY   LOUISE    BOOTH          ......  34 

CHAPTER   III. 

FRANCES   E.    WILLARD 51 

CHAPTER   IV. 

MRS.  G.  R.  ALDEN  ("  PANSY  ") 72 

CHAPTER  V. 

MARY  VIRGINIA  TERHUNE  ("  MARION  HARLAND  ")   .  90 

CHAPTER  VI. 

MARGARET IIO 

CHAPTER   VII. 

ELLA  GRANT  CAMPBELL* 127 

*  We  take  pleasure  in  saying  here  that  the  autobiographical  portions  of 
this  sketch  are  from  an  article  which  appeared  in  the  A  merican  Garden. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
RACHEL  LITTLER  BODLEY.     (By  a  Friend)      .         .         149 

CHAPTER   IX. 
CANDACE  WHEELER 175 

CHAPTER  X 

CLARA  BARTON 198 

CHAPTER  XI. 
ALICE  E.   FREEMAN.     (By  a  Friend}         .         .         .         223 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Alice  E.  Freeman Frontis. 

Juliet  Corson n 

Mary  L.  Booth 37 

Frances  E.  Willard 55 

Mrs.  G.  R.  Alden  ("  Pansy  ") 75 

Mary  Virginia  Terhune  ("  Marion  Harland  ")  .         .  95 

The  Statue  to  "Margaret  of  New  Orleans"     .         .  in 

Margaret 119 

Ella  Grant  Campbell 129 

Dr.  Rachel  Littler  Bodley 151 

Mrs.  Candace  Wheeler 177 

Miss  Dora  Wheeler .......  187 

Clara  Barton     ........  199 

Orders  and  Decorations  received  by  Miss  Barton     .  215 


SUCCESSFUL  WOMEN: 


CHAPTER    I. 

JULIET  CORSON. 

IN  the  winter  of  1884,  the  Cleveland  Educational 
Bureau,  which  was  organized  to  give  the  best 
entertainment  and  instruction  to  the  people  at  the 
lowest  possible  prices,  decided  to  have  a  series  of 
lectures  on  cooking,  in  addition  to  its  regular  course. 
We  hoped  that  some  of  the  women  of  the  city, 
especially  the  wives  of  workingmen,  would  appre- 
ciate and  appropriate  this  special  instruction. 

Who  should  be  engaged  to  give  the  lessons  ? 
Naturally  we  turned  to  Miss  Juliet  Corson,  Super- 
intendent of  the  New  York  School  of  Cookery. 

At  the  hour  appointed,  on  Saturday  afternoon, 
what  was  our  amazement  to  find  three  thousand 
9 


10  JULIET   CORSON. 

persons  present!  On  the  platform  a  gas  stove 
had  been  arranged,  while  a  man  in  white  apron 
stood  before  a  butcher's  block  ready  to  cut  his 
quarter  of  beef  as  the  teacher  might  direct. 

Miss  Corson,  with  sunny  face  and  pleasant  voice, 
mixed  her  bread  or  prepared  her  meat  as  she  talked. 
A  dozen  newspaper  reporters  were  at  their  tables, 
while  ladies  all  over  the  vast  audience  were  taking 
notes,  or  writing  receipts,  as  she  gave  them.  The 
men  among  her  listeners  seemed  equally  interested 
with  the  women ;  and  why  not,  since  good  food, 
like  good  air,  is  vital  to  one  who  would  do  able  and 
telling  work  in  the  world  ? 

Women  were  present  from  the  most  elegant 
homes  of  the  city,  and  from  the  plainest,  all  equally 
interested.  Each  newspaper  gave  from  one  to  three 
columns  daily  of  Miss  Corson's  sensible  talks  about 
food  and  health  and  of  her  directions  for  making 
soup,  tea  and  coffee,  bread  and  pastry;  and  we 
trust  that  the  city  was  helped  considerably  in  the 
matters  of  digestion,  economy,  comfort,  and  good 
sense.  I  became  myself  deeply  interested  in  Miss 
Corson ;  I  found  her  highly  educated,  refined  in 


JULIET    CORSON. 


JULIET   CORSON.  13 

manner,  one  who  dignified  and  elevated  labor,  and 
who  had  gained  her  success  by  her  own  exertions. 

Born  in  1842,  in  a  Boston  suburb,  Mt.  Pleasant, 
she  lived  and  played  in  that  shady  retreat  till  the 
family  moved  to  New  York,  when  she  was  six  years 
old.  The  mother  was  a  quiet,  cultivated  woman ; 
the  father  was  absorbed  in  his  wholesale  commis- 
sion business. 

The  child  spent  most  of  her  time  with  the  family 
of  her  uncle,  Dr.  Alfred  Upham,  brother  of  the 
writer  on  Mental  Philosophy.  Under  the  loving 
care  of  two  of  her  mother's  sisters,  and  her  uncle's 
guidance,  she  studied  Latin  and  Greek  history  and 
classical  poetry.  She  read  daily  in  Mr.  Upham's 
large  library,  and  was  quite  content  to  be  his  little 
companion  book-worm ;  for  until  she  was  almost 
twelve  years  of  age,  nearly  ten  months  of  every 
year  were  spent  on  the  sofa  or  the  bed ;  neverthe- 
less the  little  invalid  was  amassing  great  riches 
from  her  books,  and  doubtless  this  early  study  pre- 
pared her  mind  for  her  broad  work  in  the  future. 

But  she  grew  neither  unhappy  nor  morbid  from 
her  sickness ;  and  finally  she  grew  stronger,  and 


14  JULIET   CORSON. 

to  her  great  joy  she  was  often  able  to  join  her  broth- 
ers' sports ;  to  learn  to  row,  and  fish,  and  shoot 
with  them,  and  enter  heartily  into  their  pursuits. 

When  Juliet  was  eighteen,  the  gentle  mother 
died,  and,  after  a  time,  the  father  brought  a  new 
wife  to  the  home.  As  he  was  a  man  of  comfortable 
means,  there  was  enough  for  all,  but  as  the  brothers 
had  gone  out  into  life  for  themselves,  the  new  in- 
mate requested  the  daughter  to  do  the  same.  Un- 
used to  labor,  still  frail  in  health,  what  could  she 
find  to  do?  Yet  do  not  commiserate  her.  But 
for  being  forced  to  earn  her  living,  Miss  Corson 
would  probably  have  done  little  for  the  world. 

Miss  Elizabeth  Power,  a  member  of  the  editorial 
staff  of  the  New  York  Times,  then  under  the  man- 
agement of  Henry  Raymond,  had  been  instrumen- 
tal in  founding  a  library  for  working-girls,  in  a  large 
room  in  the  New  York  University  building.  Young 
Mrs.  Upham  was  interested  in  this  work.  Could 
not  her  cousin  be  useful  here  as  librarian  ?  Only 
a  small  salary  could  be  paid,  four  dollars  a  week, 
but  this  the  eager  Boston  girl  was  glad  to  obtain. 

"  It  seemed  a  gold  mine,"  she  once  said  to  me ; 


JULIET  CORSON.  15 

but  she  little  knew  how  quickly  four  dollars  would 
vanish  when  room-rent,  board-bills  and  washing- 
bills  were  to  be  paid  out  of  it.  Often  by  the  time 
the  week  was  half  through,  she  was  out  of  money, 
and  then  she  lived  by  means  of  pitiful  economies. 
She  says  laughingly  now  that  she  would  often  have 
been  glad  of  one  of  the  fifteen-cent  dinners  she 
devised  later.  Finally  it  was  arranged  by  the  kind- 
hearted  founder  of  the  Woman's  Library  that  she 
should  sleep  there  on  a  sofa  in  the  library,  and 
thus  save  a  portion  of  her  expenses ;  the  library's 
finances  did  not  warrant  an  increase  of  salary. 
She  made  a  little  money,  too,  now  and  then,  by  a 
poem  or  a  sketch  in  the  newspapers. 

At  last  she  became  acquainted  with  several  of 
the  staff  of  the  Leader,  of  which  Oakey  Hall  and 
Harry  Clapp  were  then  editors,  and  the  arrange- 
ment was  made  that  she  should  write  one  first-page 
article  each  week,  upon  the  new  books,  pictures, 
music,  and  matters  of  interest  to  women  ;  for  this 
column  she  received  five  dollars.  This  seemed 
another  "gold  mine,"  and  life  actually  looked  lux- 
urious with  nine  dollars  a  week ;  four  hundred 


1 6  JULIET   CORSON. 

sixty-eight  a  year !  Presently  Dr.  Sears,  editor  of 
the  National  Quarterly  Review,  wished  a  half-yearly 
index  made,  and  this  she  did  for  him  accurately. 
Then  he  gave  her  points  of  articles  he  desired, 
told  her  to  make  researches  and  write,  "and  he 
would  see  what  sort  of  stuff  there  was  in  her." 
The  young  librarian  was  tired  and  worn,  but  glad 
enough  to  earn  the  money  and,  moreover,  very 
proud  of  writing  for  the  Quarterly,  on  the  staff  of 
which  she  was  the  only  woman-writer. 

Now  she  wrote  an  article  on  the  resources  and 
future  of  Australia,  and  now  she  sketched  the 
progress  from  early  times,  and  the  present  position 
of  women  in  art. 

Meantime,  her  brothers  never  ceased  to  insist 
that  the  place  for  their  only  sister  was  in  her 
father's  house,  and  thither  she  did  at  last  return. 
But  she  soon  became  very  ill  from  the  effect  of 
unhappiness  there,  and  her  hard  life  of  the  year 
past;  recovering,  she  was  made  to  feel  the  advisa- 
bility of  going  back  to  self-support. 

In  1873  some  ladies  in  New  York  started  a 
noble  charity.  There  were  thousands  of  young 


JULIET   CORSON.  17 

women  who  needed  to  earn  a  living,  but,  unlike 
their  brothers,  they  had  been  taught  neither  profes- 
sion nor  trade.  Probably  their  mothers  reasoned 
that  they  would  marry  early,  and  therefore  a  trade 
would  be  useless ;  but  knowledge  never  remains  use- 
less to  man  or  woman,  married  or  unmarried.  The 
free  training-schools  for  these  young  women,  first 
opened  in  Miss  Corson's  own  home,  were  soon  lo- 
cated in  a  large  room  in  Wheeler  and  Wilson's  sew- 
ing-machine building,  and  this  company,  and  others, 
loaned  scores  of  machines,  free  of  charge,  for  ap- 
plicants to  learn  upon.  In  nine  months  over  one 
thousand  women  had  been  taught  thus  to  sew,  and 
situations  had  been  obtained  for  three  fourths  of 
them.  Book-keeping,  proof-reading,  and  short- 
hand, with  which  Miss  Corson's  avocations  had 
made  her  familiar,  were  also  taught  free  of 
charge. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1874,  it  was  decided  to 
also  teach  domestic  service.  A  larger  house  was 
taken,  where  the  basement  could  be  used  for  a 
cooking-school,  and  meals  could  be  provided  at 
cost,  to  working-girls  employed  in  neighboring 


1 8  JULIET   CORSON. 

stores.  The  upper  rooms  were  turned  into  a  dor- 
mitory, for  many  young  women  came  hither  with 
no  money  to  pay  for  either  shelter  or  food.  A 
laundry  was  soon  added. 

When  this  cooking-school  was  started,  being  the 
first  in  the  country,  no  one  knew  just  what  was  spe- 
cially best  to  be  done.  As  Juliet  Corson  was  the 
secretary  of  the  society  —  no  wonder  she  was  in- 
terested in  working-girls  from  her  own  trying 
experiences  —  she  wrote  to  the  South  Kensington 
Cooking-School  in  London  ;  but  it  proved  that  they 
too  were  just  beginning  and  could  give  little  assist- 
ance. However,  it  was  clear  to  all  that  the  school 
must  at  once  have  a  teacher.  The  ladies  inter- 
ested were  all  busy  with  their  own  home-cares. 
As  for  Miss  Corson  herself,  she  knew  how  to  make 
coffee,  and  broil  a  beefsteak,  possibly,  but  she  could 
read  French  and  German  much  better  than  she 
could  do  either.  Paul  du  Chaillu,  the  traveller, 
had  been  one  of  her  teachers  at  the  Raymond  In- 
stitute. However,  the  old  adage,  "Where  there 
is  a  will,  there  is  a  way,"once  more  found  an  illustra- 
tion in  her.  She  then  decided  to  obtain  the  best 


JULIET   CORSON.  19 

books  on  cookery,  in  the  French  and  German  lan- 
guages, and  the  result  was,  that  admiring  the  thor- 
oughness of  the  German  and  the  delicacy  of  the 
French,  she  combined  the  ideas  and  reasons  of 
their  methods  into  a  philosophy  of  her  own.  Next 
a  trained  French  cook  was  employed  who  could 
carefully  carry  out  Miss  Corson's  directions  as 
she  gave  the  lesson  before  the  class.  At  first  she 
was  nervous  as  she  stood  before  her  pupils;  but 
this  timidity  was  overcome  as  her  interest  in  her 
work  increased.  For  several  years  she  carried 
forward  this  department.  Fortunately  she  had 
early  known  some  of  the  most  cultivated  people  of 
New  York,  and  these  remained  her  warm  friends, 
as  well  as  her  comrades  of  the  press,  to  whose  un- 
varying kindness  and  encouragement  Miss  Corson 
largely  attributes  her  success. 

In  1875  requests  came  that  she  would  write 
articles  for  the  press  on  cookery.  How  strange  it 
sometimes  seemed  to  her  that  her  ideas  and  opin- 
ions should  be  sought,  and  that  she  should  be  at 
the  head  of  a  cooking-school  —  the  last  work  she 
could  ever  have  thought  possible  in  her  giiihood. 


20  JULIET   CORSON. 

Still  if  she  could  make  articles  on  books  and 
pictures  interesting,  why  not  upon  cooking  ?  The 
ignorance  on  this  subject  was  lamentable  among 
both  rich  and  poor,  and  as  she  had  made  the  com- 
position of  foods  and  their  nutritive  properties  a 
study,  she  felt  that  she  was  as  well  fitted  as  any 
one  for  this  work. 

In  1876  several  wealthy  ladies  said  to  her, 
"  Miss  Corson,  can't  you  open  a  cookery  school  at 
your  home  ?  We  wish  to  come  and  learn,  as  well 
as  the  cooks." 

So,  in  St.  Mark's  Place,  near  Cooper  Institute, 
the  famous  New  York  Cooking-School  was  opened. 
From  the  first  it  was  a  success ;  over  one  thousand 
persons  came  each  year  for  a  course  of  lessons. 
Those  in  good  circumstances  paid  ten  dollars  for 
twelve  lessons ;  wives  and  daughters  of  working- 
men,  fifty  cents  a  lesson ;  while,  says  Miss  Corson, 
"  I  never  have  let  a  person  go  who  wanted  to  learn, 
and  had  no  money.  I  gave  to  all  what  I  could 
teach."  But  how  different  these  bright  years  of 
well-paid  work  from  the  four-dollars-a-week  life  in 
the  library! 


JULIET  CORSON.  21 

In  1877,  on  account  of  the  railroad  strikes  and 
the  unsettled  condition  of  business,  there  was  much 
suffering.  Miss  Corson  well  knew  what  poverty 
brought  to  women  and  children,  especially  when 
poverty  came  because  husbands  and  fathers  were 
out  of  work.  She  believed  rightly  that  if  she  could 
show  the  poor  how  to  live  comfortably  on  a  small 
income,  she  would  be  conferring  a  blessing. 

It  was  then  that  she  prepared  that  little  book 
called  Fifteen-Cent  Dinners  for  Worktngmen's  fam- 
ilies. She  had  tested  the  receipts  in  her  own 
family  of  five  adults,  and  found  that  while  delica- 
cies could  not  be  provided,  plain  substantial  food 
could  be,  if  the  teachings  of  the  book  were  implic- 
itly followed.  Upon  its  completion,  she  offered 
the  book  to  any  Charitable  Society  which  would 
print  and  give  away  fifty  thousand  copies,  but  no 
organization  was  found  willing  to  undertake  this 
beneficence.  Then  Miss  Corson  said,  "  I  will  do 
it  myself,"  though  she  did  not  know  where  the 
money  that  was  necessary  for  the  work,  would 
come  from.  When  the  book  was  ready,  she  an- 
nounced through  the  leading  papers  that  all  per- 


22  JULIET   CORSON. 

sons  who  called  at  her  house  could  have  the  book 
free.  Before  seven  o'clock  the  next  morning,  her 
hall  was  rilled  with  people  waiting  to  receive  the 
little  pamphlet. 

So  wide-spread  was  the  demand  for  it,  that  calls 
came  even  from  India,  China,  Australia  and  South 
America.  Countless  letters  have  reached  her  from 
all  parts  of  the  world  concerning  this  book.  Some 
Socialists  ardently  blamed  her  for  writing  it,  be- 
cause, they  said,  "  If  capitalists  think  we  can  live 
on  fifteen-cent  dinners,  they  will  lower  our  wages ; " 
but  generally  the  poor  felt  grateful  for  this  assist- 
ance in  making  a  dollar  go  as  far  as  possible. 

The  six  thousand  dollars  eventually  spent  in  cir- 
culating the  book,  came  from  Miss  Corson's  own 
hard  work,  with  the  exception  of  one  hundred  dol- 
lars, which  was  given  to  her  one  day  at  the  school, 
by  Mrs.  Robert  L.  Stuart,  with  the  remark,  "  Do 
what  you  wish  with  this,  Miss  Corson."  As  all 
that  came  then  was  grist  for  Fifteen-Cent  Dinners, 
this  hundred  dollars  went.into  the  mill. 

Almost  immediately,  all  over  the  country,  the 
press  and  people  were  talking  about  the  novel  little 


JULIET   CORSON.  23 

dinner-book.  The  Baltimore  Daily  Neivs  gave  out 
over  its  counters  one  thousand  copies  in  less  than 
a  week  to  meet  the  individual  calls  of  working- 
people.  The  Philadelphia  Record  re-published  it 
entire  in  its  columns.  The  New  York  Herald  said. : 

When  we  consider  that  the  breakfast  of  many  a  laboring 
man's  family  in  these  times  (of  the  railroad  strikes  in  1877) 
frequently  consists  of  bread  alone,  we  cannot  give  too  much 
praise  to  the  book  that  teaches  how  to  make  savory  and 
healthful  dishes  at  a  cost  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  cents.  .  .  . 
There  is  no  use  in  extending  our  arguments :  the  book  speaks 
for  itself  and  needs  no  vindication :  for  its  earnest  author, 
she  has  nothing  to  make :  indeed,  for  charity's  sake,  she  is  a 
great  loser.  The  interest  we  have  is  in  the  pamphlet,  which 
has  secured  wide  attention,  and  which  is  valuable  for  the 
very  poor.  Economy  is  not  a  crime.  If  a  poor  man  can  get 
more  from  ten  cents  than  he  is  used  to  getting  he  is  better 
off. 

The  Workingmari's  Advocate,  a  labor  paper  pub- 
lished in  Albany,  said : 

If  we  could  have  our  own  way  about  every  thing  every 
workingman's  family  in  the  land  should  feed  on  roast  beef 
every  day  if  they  wanted  it.  But  this  cannot  be.  In  many, 
many  a  home  it  is  not  a  question  of  choice  food,  but  a  ques- 
tion whether  there  is  any  food  at  all,  or  at  most  whether 
there  is  food  enough  each  day  to  go  round.  To  such  fami- 
lies we  believe  the  advice  given  in  Miss  Corson's  little  book 


24  JULIET   CORSON. 

will  be  found  invaluable.  It  is  the  most  practical  work  of 
the  day. 

The  letters  of  the  working-people  themselves 
were  pathetic,  because  they  testified  how  the  poor 
struggle  to  live,  and  how  warm  their  hearts  are 
toward  those  who  aid  them.  One  person  wrote : 

If  I  understand  the  papers  that  you  help  the  poor  by  let- 
ting them  have  a  cook-book  free  of  charge,  that  they  may 
learn  the  way  to  cook  for  themselves  and  live  cheap  by  the 
good  advice  therein,  pray  send  one  to  me,  for  I  am  greatly 
in  need  of  something  of  that  sort.  If  I  was  to  write  for  all 

the  poor  people  in  E that  would  be  glad  of  a  chance 

to  get  a  book  it  would  take  two  dozen  to  supply  them,  for 
we  are  in  hard  luck  for  the  last  four  years.  Very  little 
money.  Very  little  work  at  any  price.  And  what  is  worse 
than  all,  winter  is  coming.  Then  all  work  stops.  And  the 
store-keepers  stop  trusting  us.  So  you  see  we  are  very  much 
in  need  of  a  book  to  teach  us  how  to  cook  what  little  we  can 
get  in  a  proper  way. 

Another  wrote : 

• 

Having  just  finished  a  piece  in  the  paper  of  your  book 
teaching  economy  I  would  say  I  would  be  very  thankful  if  you 
would  send  one  to  me.  I  am  a  working  man,  and  under  small 
pay,  and  I  have  a  wife  and  two  children,  and  I  can  but  just 
make  a  living.  I  feel  as  if  one  of  your  little  books  would  bring 
light  and  happiness  into  my  home  again,  and  if  so  I  could 
never  thank  you  enough. 


JULIET   CORSON.  35 

Still  another : 

Please  send  me  a  book  for  people  of  refinement  and  edu- 
cation reduced  almost  to  starvation.  God  will  reward  you 
tenfold  for  the  noble  impulse  of  heart  that  has  made  you 
remember  the  poor  and  needy,  and  I  earnestly  pray  that  the 
good  work  you  are  engaged  in  may  go  forward  until  many 
rise  up  and  call  you  blessed. 

And  here  are  others : 

Please  send  me  copies  of  the  pamphlet  you  have  for  work- 
ingmen,  to  produce  a  hearty  meal  for  15  cents.  We  eat  but 
little  meat.  Are  not  able,  and  anything  that  will  help  a  poor 
man  will  be  gratefully  received. 

Kind  friend  Juliet,  for  the  last  six  months  I  have  not 
earned  $1.50  a  day.  Times  are  very  hard.  There  are  plenty 
in  our  factory  no  better  off  than  myself,  with  five  to  seven 
in  a  family.  Please  send  us  books. 

MY  DEAR  MADAM  :  I  read  in  the  Sunday  papers  some- 
thing of  more  importance  than  I  ever  read  in  my  life,  under 
the  head  of  "  The  Food  Question."  My  wife  read  it,  and  was 
verv  anxious  to  know  how  it  could  be  done.  I  work  in  a 
shop  where  we  are  getting  80  cents  to  $1.44  a  day  ;  there  are 
about  90  men  working  there.  I  would  suggest  that  you  send 
us  each  a  copy,  that  we  may  learn  to  feed  ourselves  economi- 
cally. If  any  person  with  an  intelligent  eye  would  walk 
through  our  shops  and  take  notice  of  our  lean,  haggard, 
worn-out  faces  and  bodies,  he  would  come  to  the  conclusion 
we  need  some  advice. 


26  JULIET   CORSON. 

There  is  five  of  us  women  and  a  little  boy,  and  I  earn  a  dol- 
lar a  day.  I  sew  lace.  But  my  eyes  are  poor,  and  it  is  hard. 
We  don't  have  much  to  eat  many  days.  We  want  your  book 
so  bad. 

I  have  received  your  little  book,  and  am  very  grateful  to 
you  for  it.  It  is  a  great  help  to  me,  and  I  only  wish  I  might 
have  had  it  years  ago.  You  are  doing  a  noble  work  and  I 
pray  that  God  may  bless  you. 

Besides  this  little  book  for  the  poor,  Miss  Cor- 
son  has  given  lessons  to  the  workingwomen  of  the 
Five  Pdints  House  of  Industry,  the  yth  Ave. 
Chapel,  the  Episcopal  Orphan  Home,  the  Alexan- 
der, the  Holy  Trinity,  and  Olivet  Chapels,  New 
York,  Dr.  Vincent's  Mission,  Dr.  Hall's  Mission 
Class,  the  Wilson  Mission,  the  Sheltering  Arms, 
Cooper  Institute,  the  Workingmen's  School,  the 
Brooklyn  Industrial  Restaurant,  the  Soldiers  Or- 
phan's Home,  and  latest  at  St.  Augustine's  Chapel 
of  Trinity  Parish,  New  York.  She  was  often  told 
at  these  places  that 

husbands  were  willing  to  stay  home  in  the  evening  and  take 
care  of  the  children  so  that  their  wives  could  attend ;  even 
experienced  housekeepers,  who  had  said  that  "no  one  could 
teach  them  much  about  cooking,"  were  among  the  most  at- 
tentive and  interested  auditors. 


JULIET  CORSON.  27 

When  giving  a  course  of  lessons  in  East  Hous- 
ton Street,  New  York,  among  the  poor,  one  young 
girl  said,  "  I  will  never  forget  you,  Miss  Corson, 
as  long  as  I  have  any  bread  to  make  ; "  to  which 
Miss  Corson  replied,  "  Very  well,  May,  then  I  shall 
be  quite  satisfied,  for  as  long  as  you  live  you  will 
need  to  make  good  bread  for  yourself  or  your 
family." 

Miss  Corson  loves  this  philanthropic  work  better 
than  any  other  sfle  has  done.  She  says : 

I  hope  to  live  to  see  the  time  when  workingmen  can  earn 
enough  to  supply  all  their  wants.  Until  then  my  duty  is  to 
show  them  how  to  make  the  best  of  what  they  have.  And 
1  hold  that  in  doing  so  I  am  proving  myself  a  better  friend 
to  them  than  those  who  try  to  make  them  still  more  discon- 
tented with  the  lot  that  is  already  almost  too  hard  to  bear. 

She  had  now  become  so  widely  known  that  re- 
quests came  from  many  cities  asking  her  to  give 
courses  of  cooking-lessons  and  to  help  open  cook- 
ing-schools. In  Montreal  she  gave  the  first  les- 
sons in  cooking  ever  given  in  public  schools,  to 
the  girls  in  the  high  school ;  she  also  gave  a 
course  before  the  Ladies'  Educational  Association, 
and  evening  classes  to  the  wives  of  artisans.  In 


28  JULIET   CORSON. 

Concord,  Northampton,  Hartford,  Pittsfield,  Peo- 
ria,  Minneapolis,  Baltimore,  Chicago,  Washington, 
Syracuse,  Plainfield,  Brooklyn,  where  she  gave 
courses,  the  working-people  had  free  lessons. 
Nurses  were  taught  cookery  for  the  sick  at  the 
State  Charity  Hospital,  the  Brooklyn  City  and 
Maternity  Hospitals,  and  at  the  New  York,  Brook- 
lyn and  Washington  Training  Schools  for  Nurses. 

Before  1878  she  had  prepared  a  Text-book  and 
Housekeepers  Guide,  which  has  now  gone  through 
six  editions;  and  this  was  at  once  used  in  the 
Montreal  Cooking-School.  This  book  also  con- 
tains a  "  Dietary  for  Schools,"  showing  what  food 
and  beverages  students  need,  and  most  useful 
suggestions  are  given  about  early  breakfasts  and 
mid-day  dinners.  This  "  Dietary  "  was  prepared 
at  the  request  of  Hon.  John  Eaton,  U.  S.  Com- 
missioner of  Education,  and  ordered  published  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

Says  Miss  Corson  : 

Studying  before  breakfast  is  not  conducive  to  general 
good  health.  If  the  rising  hour  is  about  six  in  the  morning, 
the  breakfast  should  not  be  later  than  seven ;  if  the  meal  is 
likely  to  be  delayed  beyond  that  hour  a  cup  of  milk  and  a 


JULIET  CORSON.  29 

slice  of  bread  should  be  taken  after  dressing.  .  .  .  Equally 
important  with  a  hearty  breakfast  is  a  full  and  wholesome 
early  dinner  of  freshly  cooked  warm  meat  and  vegetables, 
plenty  of  bread  and  some  plain  pudding  or  fruit;  these 
should  be  will  masticated,  and  accompanied  by  about  half  a 
pint  of  fresh,  cool  water  as  a  drink. 

Before  going  to  Montreal,  Miss  Corson  sent 
word  for  the  ladies  to  have  the  usual  French 
cook  in  readiness  to  assist  her.  She  arrived  late 
on  Saturday,  and  asked  if  all  was  ready.  Yes ; 
only  the  French  cook  was  lacking.  But  the  ladies 
said  they  knew  Miss  Corson  could  cook  and  lect- 
ure at  the  same  time.  It  was  then  too  late  to  do 
otherwise ;  so  she  "  began  with  fear  and  trembling, 
and  got  through  it  alive."  It  was  much  more  en- 
joyable to  see  her  own  skilful  hands  beating  the 
eggs,  or  mixing  the  dough,  and  thenceforward  she 
dispensed  with  her  French  cook. 

In  1878  Miss  Corson's  well-known  Cooking  Man- 
ual \v  •&.<•>  published.  It  is  one  of  the  best  books 
possible  to  put  into  the  hands  of  a  young  house- 
keeper. Over  eight  thousand  copies  have  been 
sold.  Meals  for  the  Million,  a  small  book  for 
twenty  and  thirty  cents,  has  had  an  immense  sale. 


30  JULIET   CORSON. 

After  this  her  Family  Cook  Book  was  published  in 
one  of  the  cheap  libraries,  and  has  gone  into  thou- 
sands of  homes.  She  has  recently  completed  Prac- 
tical American  Cookery  and  Hoiisehold  Management, 
and  is  also  preparing  two  books  to  be  published  by 
the  Harpers,  one  of  which  is  upon  Sanitary  Living. 
This  she  means  to  make  "the  work  of  her  life." 
These  later  books  are  more  carefully  written  than 
were  the  others  in  time  stolen  from  her  work  as 
teacher  and  lecturer,  often  after  midnight,  to  meet 
demands  for  copy. 

She  is  also,  at  the  time  of  writing,  preparing 
a  cook-book  for  working-people,  to  be  sold  at 
about  the  cost  of  publication. 

All  this  time  she  has  been  writing  useful  arti- 
cles for  the  New  York  World,  Express,  Times, 
Daily  News,  Star,  Evening  Post,  Christian  Union, 
and  other  papers.  She  has  published  a  series 
of  most  admirable  articles  in  Harper's  Bazar, 
notably  those  upon  "  Health  and  Comfort  for 
Girls,"  and  "Family  Living  on  $500  a  Year." 
Miss  Corson  believes  that,  to  a  great  extent,  a 
man  is  what  his  food  makes  him. 


JULIET  CORSON.  31 

Diet  can  make  him  strong  or  weak,  intelligent  or  stupid, 
chaste  or  profligate,  sober  or  drunken,  and  she  writes  ear- 
nestly to  help  make  the  world  healthier  and  happier. 

Her  articles  on  "  Diet  in  Diseases  of  the  Nerv- 
ous System,"  and  her  words  about  sewer-gas  in 
homes,  ought  to  be  read  by  everybody. 

Has  not  this  been  a  busy  life  ?  And  nearly  all 
her  important  public  work  has  been  done  in  the  last 
ten  years,  done,  too,  with  frail  health,  and  often 
in  much  pain  of  body,  and  literally  under  the 
doctors'  sentence  of  death. 

Miss  Corson's  work  has  been  appreciated  abroad 
as  well  as  at  home.  The  Consul-General  of  France 
wrote  her : 

I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  the  French  govern- 
ment, very  much  interested  by  the  great  success  of  your 
cooking-school,  and  wishing  to  help  the  creating  of  the 
same  in  some  of  our  principal  cities,  writes  to  know  thor- 
oughly the  rules,  organization  and  management  of  your 
establishment. 

Similar  requests  also  come  from  Germany, 
Holland,  Switzerland  and  other  countries.  A 
prominent  lady  writes  her : 

You  have  done  a  great  work  to  help  people  with  small 


32  jtJLIET   CORSON. 

incomes  to  live  better  than  they  would  have  done  if  you  had 
never  been  a  missionary  in  the  world.  And  you  have 
brought  intelligence  in  cooking  to  the  homes  of  the  wealthy 
too,  and  new  ideas  as  to  living,  every  way. 

In  these  days  of  industrial  education,  Miss  Cor- 
son  attaches  much  importance  to  the  teaching  of 
cookery  in  the  public  schools.  She  has  been  en- 
gaged in  every  attempt  made  in  that  direction 
since  the  initial  step  was  taken  in  Montreal  under 
her  supervision,  and  favorable  results  are  already 
reported  of  the  lessons  given  in  several  localities. 

The  lesson  of  this  life  is  for  all  women.  Miss 
Corson  would  undoubtedly  have  succeeded  in  other 
directions,  with  the  putting  forth  of  the  same  en- 
ergy and  ability. 

A  Christmas  story  of  hers,  written  for  one  of 
her  child  favorites,  the  daughter  of  a  neighbor  of 
Thomas  Nast,  has  been  promised  illustration  by 
that  versatile  genius.  She  is  somewhat  of  an  artist 
herself,  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  music,  and  an 
ardent  student  of  the  harmonic  mysteries  of 
Wagner. 

Better  felt  even  than  Miss  Corson's  admirable 


JULIET  CORSON.  33 

and  essential  work,  is  the  influence  of  her  refined, 
gentle  nature  and  earnest  personal  life.  Always 
a  student,  she  has  been  the  friend  of  the  cultured ; 
poor  at  one  period,  she  has  been  the  friend  and 
helper  of  the  poor.  Her  cheerful  home  with  her 
pets,  her  great  St.  Bernard  dog,  "  Teddy  "  her 
Angora  cat,  and  Prince  Aladdin  her  white  Persian, 
is  an  inviting  place,  where  friends  from  all  over 
the  country  are  made  welcome. 

And  now,  unable  to  lecture  on  account  of  ill 
health,  her  physical  inactivity  tends  to  mental  ac- 
tivity, and  permits  her  to  put  her  experience  into 
written  words  which  can  reach  thousands,  where  her 
spoken  words  could  reach  but  hundreds.  "  This  is 
the  silver  lining,  I  suppose,"  she  says  cheerfully, 
and  she  adds : 

If  I  am  laying  up  any  reward  for  myself  I  hope  it  may 
come  in  the  shape  of  strength  to  complete  my  work,  as  yet 
only  outlined. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MARY   LOUISE   BOOTH. 

TALENT  does  not  always  make  a  home  de- 
lightful, nor  a  character  lovable.  No  one, 
save  Boswell,  thought  the  great  Johnson  attractive 
for  daily  companionship,  and  Jane  Welsh  Carlyle 
found  Craiggenputtoch  cheerless.  But  where  tal- 
ent and  taste  combine,  where  sweetness  and 
strength  round  out  a  character,  where  the  grace 
of  love  and  the  dignity  of  mind  unite,  there  one 
obtains  rest  and  companionship. 

In  the  upper  part  of  New  York,  there  is  one  of 
those  ideal  homes,  well-known  these  many  years 
to  those  who  follow  literature  and  art.  Its  owner, 
Miss  Mary  L.  Booth,  is  a  woman  in  middle  life, 
who,  though  in  independent  circumstances,  is  proud 
to  labor,  and  believes  in  so  doing  like  all  sensible 
Americans.  Does  she  remain  in  her  dainty  and 
34 


MARY   LOUISE    BOOTH.  35 

beautiful  parlors  through  the  day,  doing  fancy-work, 
or  reading  the  latest  novel,  or  receiving  calls,  or 
driving  in  Central  Park  ?  She  goes  regularly  to  a 
down-town  office,  where  from  morning  till  night  she 
superintends  every  detail  of  the  work  on  a  large 
and  popular  newspaper  —  Harper's  Bazar, 

At  night  she  is  found  in  her  home  with  her 
friends  about  her,  happy  because  her  life  is  full 
of  noble  effort.  A  beautiful  woman,  indeed,  with 
gray  hair,  gentle  manners,  and  a  generous  heart. 
Eminently  successful  herself,  like  Whittier  she 
delights  to  help  others,  her  kindly  face  showing 
how  genuine  is  her  helpful  spirit. 

Miss  Booth  was  born  in  the  little  village  of 
Yaphank,  N.  Y.  Her  family  removed  to  Brooklyn 
when  she  was  thirteen.  Her  father,  a  man  of 
education  and  nobility  of  nature,  organized  the 
first  public  school  ever  established  in  that  city. 

The  parents  were  both  deeply  interested  in 
their  little  girl  who  at  five  years  of  age  had  read 
the  Bible  through,  and  Plutarch's  Lives,  and  at 
seven.  Racine  in  the  original.  At  this  age,  seven, 
she  was  also  taking  lessons  in  Latin  from  her 


36  MARY    LOUISE    BOOTH. 

father.  So  eager  for  books  was  she  that  before 
she  was  ten  she  had  read  Hume,  Gibbon,  Alison 
and  other  historians. 

It  was  not  probable  that  such  a  girl  would  grow 
up  frivolous  and  useless,  fit  only  to  exhibit  fine 
gowns  upon.  Rather  such  a  girl  would  become 
the  companion  of  educated  men  ;  a  noble  mem- 
ber of  society.  It  was  fortunate  her  parents  saw 
that  a  woman  must  be  very  considerably  educated 
if  she  would  accomplish  anything  important  and 
noteworthy ;  that  the  education  of  the  usual  board- 
ing-school would  not  answer :  she  must  be  given 
such  as  a  young  man  receives  at  our  best  colleges. 

Her  tastes  inclined  her  toward  the  study  of 
the  languages  and  the  natural  sciences,  and  in 
these  directions  she  worked  earnestly,  in  con- 
nection with  general  training. 

It  was  not  at  all  strange  that  she  began  to  write 
early  for  publication.  With  a  father  able  to  sud- 
port  her,  she  yet  enjoyed  earning  money  for 
herself.  What  girl  possessing  both  force  and 
independence  of  character  does  not  enjoy  money 
that  has  come  to  her  from  her  own  effort  ? 


MARY    L.    BOOTH. 


MARY    LOUISE    BOOTH.  39 

With  a  remarkable  knowledge  of  French  and 
German,  such  as  a  lover  of  those  tongues  would 
gain  in  enthusiastic  and  diligent  study,  from  seven 
years  of  age  to  womanhood,  Miss  Booth  naturally 
turned  to  the  congenial  work  of  making  transla- 
tions of  the  finer  literature  of  both  languages  — 
thus  putting  her  readiest  knowledge  to  use  first. 
Among  her  earliest  translations  were  Me'ry's 
Andre"  Chenier,  Victor  Cousin's  Life  and  Times  of 
Madame  de  Chevreuse,  Marmier's  Russian  Tales, 
and  Edmond  About's  Germaine,  and  King  of  the 
Mountains. 

All  this  was  close  hard  work  for  a  young 
woman,  but  Miss  Booth  never  sought  nor  wished 
for  easy  or  trifling  tasks.  Light  labor  never 
develops  character,  and  the  development  of  thought 
and  character  is  surely  the  great  purpose  of  both 
literature  and  life. 

One  day  a  friend  suggested  to  her  that  a  history 
of  New  York  City  would  be  of  great  use  and  ben- 
efit in  schools,  and  as  a  complete  one  had  never 
been  written,  it  might  be  wise  for  her  to  attempt 
it.  Many  a  trained  literary  man  would  have  been 


40  MARY   LOUISE   BOOTH. 

deterred  by  the  necessary  labor  ;  but  an  energetic, 
educated  girl,  what  could  deter  her?  She  was 
thorough,  by  all  her  habits,  also  accurate,  patient 
and  persevering;  an  essential  equipment  if  one 
would  write  history. 

Turner  said  he  had  "never  known  any  genius 
but  that  of  hard  work,"  a  statement  that  most  suc- 
cessful workers  have  found  to  be  true.  Miss 
Booth  not  only  had  no  dread  of  toil,  but  she  was 
possessed  of  a  will  and  a  wish  to  do  only  noble 
and  important  work.  Still,  would  she  not  tire  of 
this  task  when  she  should  find  how  long,  how 
slow,  was  even  the  preparation  for  doing  it  ? 
Well,  she  did  not  tire,  though  she  worked  for 
years  at  gathering  together  her  materials  ;  search- 
ing public  and  private  libraries,  talking  with  lit- 
erarians  about  books,  talking  with  specialists  and 
antiquarians  about  events,  dates  and  localities, 
talking  with  statesmen  and  public-minded  men 
about  the  significance  of  this  act,  that  policy,  and 
a  multitude  of  occurrences  and  enterprises.  To 
be  sure  her  pleasant  manners  and  her  scholarly  de- 
votion made  this  comparatively  pleasurable  work. 


MARY   LOUISE    BOOTH.  41 

Those  who  possessed  the  knowledge  she  sought 
helped  her  gladly,  appreciating  her  intention  to  do 
thorough  work,  and,  above  all,  her  patient  and 
careful  preparation  for  it.  Then  followed  the 
slow  toils  of  sifting,  of  comparing  and  collating. 
All  this  before  she  wrote  the  first  page  of  her 
manuscript. 

At  the  publisher's  suggestion  the  small  school- 
history  first  projected  was  laid  aside,  and  only 
served  as  the  preliminary  study  for  a  large  octavo 
volume  of  about  a  thousand  pages,  which  was  the 
first  complete  History  of  New  York  City  ever  pub- 
lished. The  reception  of  the  book  everywhere 
was  cordial.  The  style  was  clear,  graphic ;  simple 
as  is  all  good  writing.  Second  and  third  editions 
soon  appeared ;  the  last  one,  in  1880,  brought 
down  to  date.  A  large  paper  edition  of  one  hun- 
dred autograph  copies  was  also  published,  so 
popular  was  the  work,  and  book-collectors  en- 
larged their  copies  with  portraits  and  autograph 
on  interleaved  pages. 

One  copy,  extended  to  nine  volumes  of  several 
thousand  maps,  letters,  and  illustrations,  is  owned 


42  MARY   LOUISE   BOOTH. 

in  New  York.  A  collector  in  Chicago  has  ex- 
tended his  to  twenty-two  volumes.  Miss  Booth 
has  in  her  library  a  large  paper  copy  presented 
to  her  by  an  eminent  bibliopfcilist,  which  con- 
tains over  two  thousand  illustrations  on  inserted 
leaves. 

What  should  she  do  next?  for  such  a  young 
woman  has  no  thought  of  stopping  her  work  with 
one  great  success.  Her  publishers  proposed  that 
she  should  go  abroad  and  write  popular  histories 
of  London,  Paris,  Berlin  and  Vienna,  but  the 
Civil  War  came,  and  its  matters  soon  filled  her 
mind. 

She  was  most  earnestly  opposed  to  all  the  ideas 
and  outcomes  of  slavery.  Her  brother,  a  mere 
youth,  had  entered  the  army.  Could  she  not  help 
also,  in  the  cause  of  liberty? 

Just  at  this  time  she  received  an  advance  copy 
of  Count  Agdnorde  Gasparin's  Uprising  of  a  Great 
People.  She  took  it  at  once  to  Mr.  Scribner  and 
urged  him  to  publish  a  translation ;  but  he  told  her 
the  war  would  probably  be  over  before  there  was 
time  to  bring  it  out.  Finally  he  said  that  if  the 


MARY   LOUISE   BOOTH.  43 

manuscript  could  be  ready  in  a  week,  he  would 
publish  it. 

She  hurried  home;  and  writing  twenty  hours 
out  of  twenty-four,  in  a  few  hours  less  than  a 
week  the  book  was  ready  for  the  press.  This 
work  was  read  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the 
other.  Charles  Sumner  wrote  her,  "  It  is  worth 
a  whole  phalanx  in  the  cause  of  human  freedom; " 
in  a  large  and  famous  collection  of  autographs 
in  Miss  Booth's  library  are  the  grateful  letters 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Edouard  Laboulaye,  Henri 
Martin,  Edmond  de  Pressense,  Galusha  A.  Grow, 
with  scores  of  others,  both  from  America  and  Eu- 
rope, thanking  her  for  this  and  subsequent  books. 

From  the  most  prominent  European  authors 
she  now  received  pamphlets  on  the  questions  of 
the  day,  which  with  advance  sheets  of  their  books 
she  translated  and  published  without  asking  or 
wishing  remuneration.  This  work  she  was  doing 
to  serve  her  country  in  its  great  work  of  regenera- 
tion. 

She  soon  translated  Gasparin's  America  before 
Europe,  Laboulaye 's  Paris  in  America  and  two 


44  MARY   LOUISE   BOOTH. 

volumes  by  Augustin  Cochin,  Results  of  Emancipa- 
tion, and  Results  of  Slavery.  Later,  she  translated 
Laboulaye's  Fairy  Tales,  Jean  Mace's  Fairy  Book, 
which  were  published  by  Harper  &  Brothers, 
and  several  of  the  books  of  the  Countess  de  Gas- 
parin,  including  Camille,  Vesper,  and  Human  Sor- 
rows. One  book-case  in  her  large  library  contains 
some  forty  volumes  of  her  own  translating.  What 
an  amount  of  work  from  a  single  pen !  More 
recently  she  has  translated  Laboulaye's  later  fairy 
tales,  beautifully  illustrated. 

After  the  close  of  the  war,  her  next  great  task 
was  to  translate  six  volumes  of  Henri  Martin's 
Unabridged  History  of  France,  and  then  in  con- 
nection with  Miss  Alger,  the  historian's  abridg- 
ment of  the  large  history.  On  the  library  walls 
of  Miss  Booth's  home  are  the  kind  faces  of  these 
Frenchmen,  Henri  Martin,  Gasparin,  and  Labou- 
laye,  in  company  with  Julia  Cameron's  beautiful 
autotype  of  Tennyson,  and  the  portraits  of  Dick- 
ens, Alice  Gary  and  other  celebrities. 

In  1867  the  Harpers  desired  to  start  a  new 
family  journal,  and  they  asked  Miss  Booth  to 


MARY    LOUISE    BOOTH.  45 

become  the  editor.  She  hesitated  to  assume  so 
great  a  responsibility,  also  involving  daily  and  sys- 
tematic labor  throughout  the  year ;  but,  accepting, 
she  proved  her  fitness  for  the  work.  Harper's 
Bazar  soon  reached  an  immense  circulation,  paying 
its  way  from  the  first,  a  thing  unusual  in  journalism. 
For  more  than  nineteen  years  Miss  Booth  has  made 
this  paper  bright,  fresh,  pure,  reliable,  sensible,  and 
a  great  success.  Its  corps  of  contributors  has  in- 
cluded the  leading  writers  of  Europe  and  America. 
Meantime  her  home  has  been  a  literary  centre 
for  cultured  people.  Every  Saturday  evening  one 
may  meet  in  her  parlors,  authors,  statesmen,  ar- 
tists, the  gifted  from  all  the  professions.  The 
rooms  are  cheerful  and  light  in  color,  and  the 
hostess  and  her  adopted  sister,  Mrs.  Anne  W. 
Wright,  are  as  cheery  as  the  home  they  brighten. 
Here  are  countless  tokens  of  friendship  :  vases 
from  Japan,  old  silver  from  Norway ;  jewels  from 
the  neck  of  the  Queen  of  Montezuma ;  unique 
things  from  Mexico  and  the  Indies ;  and  the  hair 
of  Shelley,  of  Keats,  fine  and  brown,  of  Byron, 
dark,  and  of  Leigh  Hunt,  in  the  same  case.  The 


46  MARY   LOUISE    BOOTH. 

pictures  on  the  walls  are  the  gifts  of  famous 
friends. 

As  we  sit  in  the  back  parlor  looking  through 
the  handsomest  album  I  have  ever  seen,  Russia 
leather  with  silver  clasps,  a  birthday  gift  to  Miss 
Booth  from  the  friends  who  attend  her  Saturday 
evening  receptions,  "  Muff,"  a  great  Maltese  cat, 
walks  in,  and  apparently  enjoys  the  faces  with  us. 
This  seems  like  a  bit  of  English  home-life  where 
a  cat  is  always  a  petted  member  of  the  family, 
either  in  high  life  or  among  the  lowly.  In  this 
album  one  sees  refined  Harriet  Prescott  Spof- 
lord,  merry  Grace  Greenwood,  artistic  Richard 
Watson  Gilder,  handsome  Whitelaw  Reid,  bril- 
liant Mary  Mapes  Dodge,  and  scores  of  others, 
each  contributing  an  original  poem,  or  words  of 
appreciation.  A  great  cage  of  canaries,  and  a 
mocking-bird,  in  the  window,  help  to  make  this 
New  York  stone  house  like  a  bit  of  country  life, 
in  its  kinship  with  nature.  Flowers,  too,  tell  that 
Miss  Booth  is  as  refined  as  she  is  scholarly. 

Miss  Booth  receives  a  large  salary,  proving  that 
a  woman  besides  making  friends  and  fame  can 


MARY   LOUISE    BOOTH.  47 

make  money,  and  this  brings  her  into  striking 
contrast  with  the  helpless  women  who  are  obliged 
to  depend  upon  relatives,  largely  because  they 
were  not  educated  in  early  life  to  be  self-depend- 
ent, and  were  not  brought  up  to  have  a  special 
pursuit  or  some  definite  and  engrossing  aim. 

Miss  Booth,  notwithstanding  her  constant  work 
within  daily  confines  of  "office  hours,"  notwith- 
standing the  many-sided  superintendency  devolv- 
ing on  her,  notwithstanding  the  outgoes  of  vitality 
into  the  work  of  originating,  criticising,  deciding 
upon  and  bringing  into  symmetry  the  plans  and 
details  of  a  great,  bright  weekly  journal,  has 
excellent  health.  Probably  her  daily  and  syste- 
matic labor  is  one  secret  of  this  health.  For  it  is 
now  admitted  that  where  the  mind  is  fully  and 
regularly  occupied  and  exercised,  the  body  is  in 
far  better  condition.  She  has  had  but  one  serious 
illness  since  she  was  a  child,  a  rheumatic  fever 
which  she  thinks  she  could  have  avoided  with 
a  little  care  and  less  confidence  in  her  impreg- 
nable good  health.  Her  mother  is  still  living  in 
superb  health,  a  handsome  old  lady  with  spark- 


48  MARY   LOUISE   BOOTH. 

ling  black  eyes  and  unwrinkled  face,  in  her  eighty- 
sixth  year,  residing  in  Brooklyn,  with  Mrs.  King, 
Miss  Booth's  only  sister.  This  mother  comes  from 
a  long-lived  family.  Her  grandmother  was  born 
in  1744  and  died  in  1844,  a  century  old,  retain- 
ing her  faculties  to  the  end.  "  I  remember  when 
a  child,"  says  Miss  Booth,  "hearing  her  tell  of 
the  days  when  the  country  was  covered  with  for- 
ests, swarming  with  wild  beasts  and  game,  and 
thickly  populated  with  Indians,  for  she  was  grown 
at  the  time  of  the  French  and  Indian  war,  and 
married  at  the  Revolutionary  epoch.  How  young 
it  makes  our  country  seem  thus  to  stretch  hands 
to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  to 
have  stood  face  to  face  with  those  who  knew  the 
primeval  forest !  " 

It  is  easy  to  desire  Miss  Booth's  success  for 
one's  self,  is  it  not?  But  how  many  women 
would  be  willing  to  start  upon  the  years  of  un- 
tiring toil  that  has  gained  it?  How  many  would 
serve  her  apprenticeship  ?  Let  us  review  the 
details  of  her  work  simply  as  an  editor  : 

For  nineteen  years  Miss  Booth  has  been  habit- 


MARY   LOUISE    BOOTH.  49 

ually  at  the  Bazar  office  from  9  A.  M.  to  4  p.  M. 
daily,  usually  taking  a  light  lunch  in  the  office  ; 
permitting  herself  only  a  brief  vacation  at  mid- 
summer. Every  line  of  manuscript  in  the  paper, 
and  its  proof,  is  read  by  her.  Every  illustration 
is  scrutinized  by  her.  You  can  see  that  she  can 
have  had  few  playtimes,  and  that  her  work  must 
be  thoroughly  systematized ;  no  time  wasted  in 
looking  up  what  has  been  done  or  what  remains 
to  do.  "Editorial  work,"  she  says,  "like  woman's, 
is  never  done ;  and  the  planning  of  which  it 
largely  consists  goes  on  day  and  night  without 
interruption.  It  is  not  what  the  editor  writes,  but 
what  he  chooses  for  his  paper,  that  makes  or 
mars  his  success.  It  is  the  judicial  capacity  that 
marks  the  true  editor."  She  has  shown  herself 
to  possess  the  rare  talents  that  go  to  make  suc- 
cessful editorship :  a  comprehensive  outlook  as  to 
the  needs  of  a  cultivated  people,  variety  of  method, 
well-nigh  unerring  judgment,  and  a  capacity  for 
hard  labor. 

To  work   for   the   world   and   not   to   become 
soured  by  its  indifference,  to  have  strong  convic- 


$0  MARY   LOUISE   BOOTH. 

tions  and  yet  be  charitable  toward  those  who 
think  differently,  to  correct  the  faults  of  humanity 
without  bitterness  or  personality,  to  keep  a  sub- 
lime hope  in  one's  heart,  to  be  as  unostentatious 
as  though  she  were  unknown  to  fame,  and  to  do  her 
work  as  thoroughly  and  regularly  as  though  she 
depended  on  her  labor  for  her  daily  bread  —  all 
these  lessons  belong  with  Miss  Booth's  public 
work. 

To  show  other  women  that  a  woman  may  have 
consummate  ability,  and  yet  be  gentle  and  refined 
and  warm-hearted,  that  she  can  be  accurate, 
prompt,  and  thorough,  and  yet  think  out  beyond 
the  thousand  details  of  everyday  life,  reaching  for 
all  beauty  and  grace,  and  that  if  one  woman  can 
stand  at  the  head  of  a  great  journal  it  must  be 
logically  true  that  other  trained  women  may  come 
to  stand  at  the  head  of  the  business  they  select  — 
these,  too,  are  public  lessons  of  a  life  and  a  char- 
acter worthy  of  study  by  our  noblest  girls. 


CHAPTER    III. 

FRANCES    E.    WILLARD. 

A  LITTLE  way  out  of  Chicago,  in  a  pretty 
home  called  "  Rest  Cottage,"  at  Evanston, 
lives  Frances  E.  Willard,  one  of  the  best-known 
and  best-loved  women  of  our  country. 

Another  woman  lives  in  the  cottage,  Miss  Wil- 
lard's  mother.  In  her  eighty-second  year  she  is 
still  the  inspiration  of  those  who  are  much  with 
her;  still  a  reader  of  the  best  poetry  and  prose, 
and  interested  in  the  leading  questions  of  the  day. 
On  January  3,  1885,  this  venerable  woman  had  a 
charming  birthday  celebration.  The  cottage  was 
fragrant  with  flowers,  the  South  sending  japonicas 
and  hanging  moss  ;  the  North,  white  carnations 
and  roses.  Some  four  hundred  friends  gathered 
to  do  her  honor,  and  messages  and  gifts  came 
from  all  over  the  country.  President  Fairchild 
S1 


52  FRANCES    E.    WILLARD. 

sent  sprigs  of  evergreen  from  the  old  tree  in  front 
of  the  early  Willard  home  in  Oberlin.  Joseph 
Cook  sent  "  Congratulations  to  the  mother  on  the 
daughter's  life,  and  to  the  daughter  on  the 
mother's."  Mr.  Moody,  Roswell  Smith  of  the 
Century  Magazine,  Dr.  Vincent,  Maria  Mitchell, 
and  hundreds  of  others,  sent  cheering  words. 

No  one  of  all  the  company  was  so  proud  and 
glad  as  Frances.  No  one  knew,  so  well  as  she, 
how  this  good  mother  who  had  toiled  for  her  three 
children,  was  deserving  of  this  honor.  And  yet 
it  come  because  the  noble  daughter,  by  her  own 
life,  had  made  the  mother  known  to  the  world. 

Miss  Willard  has  had  the  rich  blessing  of  Chris- 
tian parentage.  Not  all  who  gain  success  are  so 
fortunate,  and  yet  it  is  rare  to  find  eminence 
where  there  has  not  been  at  least  an  able  mother 
and  of  high  principles.  Her  ancestry  enrolls 
names  of  many  who  have  toiled  for  the  public 
good.  One  of  the  Willards  was  a  president  of 
Harvard  College,  another  a  pastor  of  the  Old 
South  Church  in  Boston,  and  still  another  the 
well-known  educator,  Emma  Willard  of  Troy, 


FRANCES    E.    WILLARD.  53 

N.  Y.  Miss  Willard's  great-grandfather  was  a 
minister  at  Keene,  N.  H.,  for  forty  years,  and 
a  chaplain  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Her  father,  a  native  of  Vermont,  and  a  promis- 
ing young  business  man,  after  marrying  an  intelli- 
gent girl,  also  a  teacher,  started  Westward  to  found 
a  home.  The  daughter,  Frances  Elizabeth,  was 
born  at  Churchville,  near  Rochester,  N.  Y.  When 
she  was  two  years  old,  the  young  parents  moved 
to  Oberlin,  Ohio,  where  for  five  years  they  both 
devoted  themselves  to  study,  and  then  bought  a 
large  farm  at  Janesville,  Wis.,  called  "Forest 
Home."  Here  for  twelve  years  the  girl  basked 
in  the  sunshine  of  nature  and  health.  She  says 
of  herself: 

"  Reared  in  the  country,  on  a  Western  farm,  I 
was  absolutely  ignorant  of  tight  shoes,  corsets  or 
extinguisher  bonnets.  Clad  during  three  fourths 
of  the  year  in  flannel  suits,  not  unlike  those  worn 
at  gymnastics  now  by  young  lady  collegians,  and 
spending  most  of  my  time  in  the  open  air,  the 
companion  in  work  as  well  as  in  sport  of  my  only 
brother,  I  knew  much  more  about  handling  rake 


54  FRANCES    E.    WILLARD. 

and  hoe  than  I  did  of  frying-pan  and  needle ; 
knew  the  name  and  use  of  every  implement  han- 
dled by  carpenter  and  joiner ;  could  herd  the  sheep 
all  day  and  never  tire  ;  was  an  enthusiastic  poultry 
raiser ;  and  by  means  of  this  natural  out-door  life, 
eight  or  nine  hours  sleep  in  twenty-four,  a  sensible 
manner  of  dress,  and  the  plain  fare  of  bread  and 
butter,  vegetables,  eggs,  milk,  fruit  and  fowl,  was 
enabled  to  store  up  electricity  for  the  time  to 
come. 

"  We  three  children  were  each  promised  a  library 
to  cost  one  hundred  dollars  apiece  if  we  would 
not  touch  tea  or  coffee  till  we  became  of  age. 
Subsequently  I  used  both  for  years,  very  moder- 
ately, but  have  now  entirely  discarded  them.  A 
physician  was  almost  an  unknown  visitant  to  our 
home." 

The  common-sense  mother  said,  "  Let  a  girl 
grow  as  a  tree  grows  —  according  to  its  own  sweet 
will." 

"  Forest  Home,"  says  Frances,  "  was  a  queer 
old  cottage  with  rambling  roof,  gables,  dormer- 
windows,  and  little  porches,  crannies,  and  out-of- 


FRANCES    E.    WILLARD.  57 

the-way  nooks,  scattered  here  and  there.  The 
bluffs,  so  characteristic  of  Wisconsin,  rose  about 
it  on  the  right  and  left.  The  beautiful  Rock 
River  flowed  at  the  west  side ;  to  the  east  a  prairie 
stretched  away  to  meet  the  horizon,  yellow  with 
grain  in  summer,  fleecy  with  snow  in  the  winter." 

But  there  were  all  sorts  of  intellectual  feasts  in 
this  plain  home.  Frances,  and  her  lovely  sister, 
Mary,  each  not  far  from  twelve  years  of  age, 
organized  an  "Artist's  Club"  of  two.  They  would 
lead  up  the  willing  goat,  put  panniers  on  his  back, 
packed  with  lunch  and  a  bottle  of  spring  water, 
and  then  with  two  shepherd  dogs  in  the  proces- 
sion, wander  off  to  the  river  bank  where  they 
would  sketch  the  whole  day  long.  Sometimes 
the  frolicsome  girls  tried  "to  train  a  calf  into  a 
riding-horse,"  but  were  not  rewarded  with  great 
success  in  this  novel  undertaking.  At  other  times 
they  caught  Jack,  a  favorite  horse,  among  the 
hazel  bushes  and  enjoyed  a  horseback  ride. 

At  fourteen  when  a  new  schoolhouse  was  built 
in  their  locality,  Frances  went  to  school  for  the 
first  time,  the  parents  and  a  bright  young  lady  in 


$  FRANCES    E.    WILLARD. 

the  family  having  been  her  teachers  heretofore. 
She  writes  in  her  journal : 

"  Sister  and  I  got  up  long  before  light  to  pre- 
pare for  the  first  day  at  school.  We  put  all  our 
books  in  mother's  satchel ;  had  a  nice  tin  pail  full 
of  dinner.  Stood  next  to  Pat  O'Donahue  in  spell- 
ing, and  Pat  stood  at  the  head." 

Next  the  girls  started  a  newpaper,  with  poems, 
essays  and  stories.  The  "  news  "  must  have  been 
meagre,  but  such  as  it  was  it  was  greatly  enjoyed 
by  the  public ;  which  public  consisted  of  the 
father  and  mother !  At  sixteen  Frances  received 
a  prize  from  the  Illinois  Agricultural  Society  for 
an  essay  on  "  Country  Homes."  Mr.  Willard  was 
deeply  interested  in  agriculture,  having  been  pres- 
ident of  the  State  Society,  as  well  as  a  member  of 
the  State  Legislature,  and  was  of  course  pleased 
at  his  daughter's  work  and  success  in  this  field. 

On  her  seventeenth  birthday  she  says  in  her 
journal :  "  This  is  the  date  of  my  martyrdom. 
Mother  insists  that  at  last  I  must  have  my  hair 
'done  up  woman  fashion.'  She  says  she  can 
hardly  forgive  herself  for  letting  me  '  run  wild '  so 


FRANCES    E.    WILLARD.  59 

long.  My  'back  hair'  is  twisted  up  like  a  cork- 
screw ;  I  carry  eighteen  hair-pins ;  my  head  aches, 
my  feet  are  entangled  in  the  skirt  of  my  new 
gown;  I  can  never  jump  over  a  fence  again  so 
long  as  I  live.  As  for  chasing  the  sheep  down  in 
the  shady  pasture,  it's  out  of  the  question,  and  to 
climb  to  my  'Eagle's  Nest'  seat  in  the  big  burr- 
oak  would  ruin  this  new  frock  beyond  repair. 
Altogether,  I  recognize  the  fact  that  'my  occu- 
pation's gone.' " 

A  year  later  she  was  sent  to  Milwaukee  Col- 
lege, founded  by  Catharine  Beecher.  The  Wil- 
lards  now  saw  the  necessity  of  going  to  some 
town  where  the  children  could  be  more  fully  edu- 
cated. The  farm  was  therefore  sold,  with  a 
reluctant  good-by  to  the  goat  and  the  poultry,  and 
the  family  moved  to  Evanston,  the  seat  of  the 
Northwestern  University,  where  Mr.  Willard  be- 
came a  partner  in  the  Chicago  banking-firm  of 
Preston,  Willard  &  Kean. 

Both  daughters  entered  the  Woman's  College, 
and  graduated  with  honor.  For  a  girl  with  Fran- 
ces's energy,  the  ending  of  school  was  but  the 


60  FRANCES    E.    WILLARD. 

beginning  of  a  career  of  work.  She  had  a  pleas- 
ant home,  and  a  father  able  to  support  her,  but 
why  need  she  be  dependent  upon  him?  Should 
she  stay  at  home  and  wait  for  marriage  ?  No ;  she 
would  earn  money  for  herself,  and  marry  or  not, 
as  her  heart  prompted. 

A  country  school  was  found  near  Chicago,  in 
which  the  young  teacher  began  her  labors.  Then 
a  position  was  offered  her  in  Evanston,  as  teacher 
of  natural  science  in  the  college  whence  she  had 
graduated.  After  this,  she  was  called  to  the 
Female  College  at  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  and  later  on 
became  Preceptress  in  Genesee  Wesleyan  Semi- 
nary at  Lima,  N.  Y. 

Meantime  a  great  sorrow  had  come  into  her 
life  —  the  death  of  the  beautiful  and  gifted  sister 
Mary ;  and  a  few  years  later,  the  father  and  only 
brother,  Oliver,  died,  and  Frances  and  her  mother 
were  left  alone. 

While  teaching  in  Pittsburg,  Miss  Willard  wrote 
her  first  book,  a  memoir  of  Mary,  called  Nine- 
teen Beautiful  Years,  which  was  published  by  the 
Harpers  in  1864.  This  book  has  made  thou- 


FRANCES    E.    WILLARD.  6 1 

sands  better  from  reading  it,  and  will  continue  to 
do  its  elevating  work  in  the  years  to  come.  A  new 
edition  has  lately  been  brought  out  with  an  intro- 
duction by  the  poet  Whittier. 

In  1868,  a  great  blessing  came  to  Miss  Willard. 
Her  friend,  Kate  A.  Jackson,  took  her  abroad  for 
three  years  as  her  guest.  They  travelled  in 
nearly  every  European  country.  In  Greece  and 
Palestine  and  Asia  Minor  they  found  much  to 
study  and  enjoy.  They  climbed  the  pyramids 
and  visited  the  treasures  of  art  in  Italy  and  Ger- 
many. While  absent  Miss  Willard  devoted  more 
than  a  year  to  study  in  the  College  de  France 
and  the  Petit  Sorboune,  attending  the  lectures  of 
Guizot,  the  historian,  and  other  famous  men ;  she 
also  studied  in  Berlin  and  Rome.  Her  training 
went  constantly  on.  Whenever  she  could  com- 
mand time  she  wrote  articles  for  the  New  York 
Independent,  Harper's  Monthly,  Christian  Union  and 
the  Chicago  journals.  It  was  probable,  of  course, 
that  a  girl  who  thus  preferred  work  to  pleasure, 
would  become  a  successful  woman. 

On  her  return  home,  a  new  point  of  departure 


62  FRANCES    E.   WILLARD. 

almost  immediately  confronted  her.  She  spoke 
before  a  Woman's  Missionary  Meeting  upon  the 
Christian  work  done  abroad,  and  so  impressed 
was  a  prominent  gentleman  with  her  ability  as  a 
speaker,  that  he  proposed  to  her  that  she  should 
give  a  lecture,  promising  her  a  large  and  appre- 
ciative audience.  Hesitating  much  to  try  her 
powers,  she  laid  the  matter  before  her  mother, 
asking  if  she  should  accept.  "By  all  means,  my 
child,"  said  she ;  "  enter  every  open  door." 

"At  the  expiration  of  three  weeks,  and  with 
no  manuscript  visible,"  says  Miss  Willard,  "  I  ap- 
peared before  an  elegant  audience  in  Centenary 
Church,  Chicago.  The  manuscript  was  with  me 
in  portfolio,  ready  for  reference  in  case  of  failure, 
but  I  didn't  fail"  So  pleased  were  the  people 
and  the  newspapers,  that  she  at  once  received  invi- 
tations to  lecture  from  all  parts  of  the  Northwest. 

Honors  now  came  fast  and  thick.  In  1871  she 
was  made  President  of  the  Woman's  College  at 
Evanston,  her  Alma  Mater,  and  two  years  later, 
when  the  college  became  a  part  of  the  University, 
she  was  made  Dean  of  this  college,  and  Professor 


FRANCES    E.    WILLARD.  63 

of  ^Esthetics  in  the  University.  She  adopted  a 
plan  of  self-government  for  the  pupils,  novel  then, 
but  since  used,  substantially,  at  Amherst  College 
and  elsewhere.  When  any  girl  had  shown  herself 
worthy,  she  entered  a  "  Roll  of  Honor  Society," 
and  if  her  record  was  good  for  a  specified  time, 
she  joined  the  "  corps  of  the  self-governed  "  with 
a  pledge  to  act  her  best.  Miss  Willard,  the 
teacher,  has  proved  an  inspiration  to  more  than 
two  thousand  pupils ;  her  always  recurring  ques- 
tion to  them  being ,  "  What  are  you  going  to  be  in 
the  world,  and  what  are  you  going  to  do?" 

In  the  winter  of  1873  there  was  a  remarkable 
uprising  of  the  Christian  women  of  the  land, 
known  and  remembered  as  the  Temperance  Cru- 
sade. Tens  of  thousands,  in  praying-bands,  vis- 
ited the  saloons,  and  awoke  the  whole  country  to 
the  peril  of  a  drinking  habit  well-nigh  universal, 
and  to  the  sin  of  the  liquor  traffic. 

Miss  Willard  was  asked  to  join  the  movement. 
She  was  already  a  successful  teacher,  author  and 
lecturer.  Would  she  now  please  give  up  literary 
and  educational  reputation,  and  the  brilliant  pros- 


64  FRANCES    E.    WILLARD. 

pects  of  her  life,  and  enter  upon  a  lowly  and  un- 
popular work  ?  Better  than  art  or  literature  she 
had  always  loved  to  see  a  human  being  helped 
upward.  She  once  had  said,  "  The  deepest  thought 
and  desire  of  my  life  would  have  been  met,  if  my 
dear  old  Mother  Church  had  permitted  me  to  be 
a  minister."  Yes,  she  was  immediately  and  wholly 
ready  to  aid  the  temperance  women. 

She  was  made  the  National  Corresponding 
Secretary  of  the  movement,  and  at  once  began 
the  work  that  has  been  an  astonishment  in  its 
breadth  and  a  blessing  to  hundreds  of  thousands. 
Her  grand  faculty  for  organization  developed  and 
made  itself  manifest.  She  determined  to  herself 
to  visit  and  speak  in  every  town  in  the  United 
States  which  numbered  ten  thousand  inhabitants 
—  she  afterward  included  many  of  five  thousand, 
in  order  to  organize  a  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union  in  each  if  it  had  not  one  already. 

Was  this  a  possibility?  She  had  little  money 
and  a  constitution  not  robust.  But  she  had  what 
was  better,  a  heroic  purpose,  and  great  faith  in 
God  working  with  man. 


FRANCES   E.    WILLARD.  65 

For  ten  years  she  spoke,  on  an  average,  once  a 
day,  staying  at  "  Rest  Cottage  "  only  three  weeks 
during  each  year;  sent  out  in  the  later  years 
twenty  or  thirty  thousand  letters ;  travelled  some 
years,  from  twenty-five  thousand  to  thirty  thou- 
sand miles,  accompanied  by  her  invaluable  private 
secretary,  Miss  Anna  Gordon,  whom  she  truly 
calls  her  "right  arm,"  writing  nearly  all  her 
speeches  and  articles  for  the  press  on  the  cars. 
The  wonder  is  that  she  is  not  a  broken-down 
woman,  which  indeed  she  doubtless  would  be 
were  it  not  for  her  sunny  disposition,  her  common 
sense,  her  power  of  holding  herself  at  an  even 
pace,  and  nature's  early  gifts  and  endowments  in 
the  free  life  at  Forest  Home. 

She  herself  says :  "  The  chief  wonder  of  my 
life  is  that  I  dare  to  have  so  good  a  time,  physi- 
cally, mentally  and  religiously.  I  have  swung 
like  a  pendulum  through  my  years  '  without  haste, 
without  rest.'  What  it  would  be  to  have  an  idle 
hour  I  find  it  hard  to  fancy.  With  no  headache 
why  should  I  not  think  right  straight  ahead  ? " 

It  is  largely  through  Miss  Willard's  efforts  that 


66  FEANCES    E.    WILLARD. 

in  the  whole  thirty-eight  States  and  nine  Terri- 
tories, W.  C.  T.  U.'s  have  been  organized.  In  ten 
thousand  towns  and  cities  a  great  body  of  women 
are  at  work  to  make  liquor-selling  and  liquor- 
drinking,  with  their  consequent  ruin  to  men  and 
their  families,  hateful  and  disreputable  before  the 
world.  Especially  have  the  people  of  the  South 
become  enthusiastic  over  the  settlement  of  the 
temperance  question.  Miss  Willard  has  made 
four  campaigns  in  that  great  section  of  our  coun- 
try since  1880  and  has  been  welcomed  into  the 
most  important  pulpits,  and  sustained  by  those  in 
the  highest  positions. 

The  Woman's  National  Organization  has  now 
over  thirty  departments.  It  has  for  its  organ  the 
Union  Signal,  a  bright  sixteen-page  weekly  paper, 
with  a  large  subscription  list.  In  twenty  States, 
temperance  text-books  have  been  introduced  into 
the  public-schools  by  law.  The  press  department 
reaches  over  one  thousand  papers,  and  sends  out 
annually  over  five  million  pages  of  printed  matter. 
The  W.  C.  T.  U.  has  commissioned  Mrs.  Mary  C. 
Leavitt,  of  Boston,  to  journey  round  the  world 


FRANCES    E.    WILLARD.  67 

perfecting  kindred  organizations  in  India,  China, 
Russia,  Scandinavia,  and  other  countries.  Many 
of  the  States  are  working  for  Constitutional 
Prohibition  already  obtained  in  Maine,  Kansas, 
Iowa  and  Rhode  Island,  and  for  the  ballot  for 
woman,  in  the  power  of  which  Miss  Willard 
heartily  believes,  since  the  liquor-power  would 
thus  be  met  by  the  "  force  of  numbers."  Miss 
Willard  has  now  been  the  President  of  the  National 
Association  for  seven  years. 

For  the  next  ten  years,  Miss  Willard  hopes,  if 
she  lives,  to  use  her  pen  even  more  than  her 
voice,  remaining  much  of  the  time  at  "  Rest  Cot- 
tage." Here  she  has  fitted  up  a  great  workshop ; 
and  to  a  friend  who  asks  what  she  is  doing  now, 
she  replies,  "  I  have  the  care  of  four  departments 
of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.,  and  the  general  super- 
vision of  the  whole,  viz.:  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U., 
National  Literature,  White  Cross  League,  and  the 
extension  of  the  organization.  Each  would  be  too 
much  for  seven  women  ;  I  only  make  a  dash  at 
each."  But  those  who  know  Miss  \Villard,  know 
her  thoroughness.  She  is  usually  at  her  desk  from 


68  FRANCES    E.    WILLARD. 

nine  till  six,  with  a  half-hour  for  dinner,  and  another 
half-hour  for  exercise  in  the  open  air. 

A  well-known  lady  in  Evanston,  Miss  Willard's 
home,  writes  me  concerning  her :  "  To  human  ob- 
servation, here,  Frances  Willard  is  without  fault. 
Her  liberality  is  unbounded,  or  would  be  if  her 
purse  were  as  big  as  her  heart.  Her  own  private 
expenditures  she  reduces  to  a  minimum,  going 
without  what  she  actually  needs,  in  order  that 
those  in  want  may  never  be  refused.  .  .  . 
In  her  immense  and  ever-increasing  correspon- 
dence, there  are  the  usual  number  of  cranks  and 
bores.  But  every  letter  is  answered,  and  cour- 
teously. When  remonstrated  with  on  account  of 
the  time  and  strength  it  takes,  she  replies,  '  I  like 
to  have  them  write  to  me.  I  want  to  get  at  the 
temperance  work  in  every  possible  way,  and  at 
the  hearts  of  people.  Perhaps  it  cheers  some 
poor  soul  to  write  to  me  and  get  a  reply.  Let  us 
comfort  one  another  all  we  can.'  " 

Another  prominent  lady  writes :  "  Miss  Willard's 
life  will  bear  the  closest  scrutiny.  So  conscien- 
tious is  she  in  her  correspondence  for  the  National 


FRANCES   E.   WILLARD.  69 

Society  that  altogether  she  sometimes  has  ten 
secretaries  at  work ;  even  an  envelope  or  a  sheet 
of  paper  is  never  wasted.  This  cannot  always  be 
said  of  men  in  the  Government  or  Church  or  Mis- 
sionary employ !  ...  She  is  heart  and 
soul  and  body,  given,  a  living  sacrifice,  to  the 
work  of  saving  men.  She  invites  to  her  home 
those  who  have  been  overcome  by  temptation. 
Rarely  is  a  social  invitation  accepted,  although 
invited  by  the  best  and  the  greatest,  unless  it  be 
where  she  can  do  some  work.  She  is  a  marvellous 
woman,  great,  and  will  be  greater."  She  receives 
no  remuneration  from  the  Society  except  that  it 
furnishes  postage  and  stationery. 

Already,  thanks  to  the  energy  of  Mrs.  T.  B. 
Carse,  largely,  a  building  is  in  prospect  in  Chicago 
with  lecture  hall,  Training  School  for  women  in 
the  temperance  work  and  National  headquarters 
for  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  A  million  dollars  is  needed, 
and  some  person  will  yet  give  this  gift.  The  Tem- 
perance Hospital  was  opened  April  8,  1886,  oppo- 
site Chicago  University.  Both  sexes  and  all 
classes  are  to  be  treated  without  the  use  of  alco- 


7<5  FRANCES    E.    WILLARD. 

hol,  the  statistics  of  the  large  London  Temper- 
ance Hospital  proving  that  a  much  larger  per 
cent,  of  patients  recover  without  alcohol  than  with 
it.  One  woman,  Mrs.  R.  G.  Peters  of  Michigan, 
gave  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  this  work.  A  medi- 
cal college  and  free  dispensary  are  to  be  opened 
in  connection  with  it.  Dr.  Mary  Weeks  Burnett 
is  president  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

The  White  Cross  League,  instituted  by  the 
Bishop  of  Durham,  in  England,  pledging  equal 
purity  for  man  and  woman,  bids  fair  to  be  one  of 
Miss  Willard's  grandest  lines  of  work.  She  has, 
with  all  her  other  labors,  been  writing  some  excel- 
lent articles  to  girls,  in  the  Chautauquan,  on  the 
subject,  "How  to  Win."  She  says: 

"  Keep  to  your  specialty,  whether  it  is  raising  turnips  or 
tunes  ;  painting  screens  or  battle  pieces  ;  studying  political 
economy  or  domestic  receipts.  .  .  .  Have  in  place  of 
aimless  reverie,  a  resolute  aim.  The  first  one  in  the  idle 
stream  of  my  life  was  the  purpose,  lodged  there  by  my  life's 
best  friend,  my  mother,  to  have  an  education.  .  .  .  Mar- 
garet Fuller  Ossoli  was  another  fixed  point  —  shall  I  not 
rather  say  a  fixed  star?  —  in  the  sky  of  my  thought,  while 
Arnold  of  Rugby,  to  one  who  meant  to  make  teaching  a 
profession,  was  chief  of  all. 


FRANCES    E.    WILLARD.  71 

"  If  my  dear  mother  did  me  one  crowning  kindness  it 
was  in  making  me  believe  that  next  to  being  an  angel,  the 
greatest  bestowment  of  God  is  to  make  one  a  woman.  .  . 
.  If  I  were  asked  the  mission  of  the  ideal  woman,  I  would 
reply,  It  is  to  make  the  whole  -world  homelike.  .  .  .  She 
came  into  the  college  and  elevated  it,  into  literature  and 
hallowed  it,  into  the  business  world  and  ennobled  it.  She 
will  come  into  government  and  purify  it,  for  woman  will 
make  homelike  every  place  she  enters,  and  she  will  enter 
every  place  on  this  round  earth." 

Miss  Willard  has  come  to  her  grand  success 
chiefly  because  of  a  high  purpose.  Life  has  been 
for  her  a  constant  work-day  since  she  sketched 
with  Mary  by  the  riverside  at  Forest  Home,  and 
every  day  has  told  upon  the  future  of  our  people. 
For  constantly  working  in  advance  of  all  party- 
lines,  she  has  helped  more  than  any  other  woman 
first  to  make  a  great  issue  and  then  to  hasten  it 
into  national  consideration. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MRS.  G.  R.  ALDEN   ("  PANSY  "). 

I  AM  going  to  write  a  sketch  of  '  Pansy/ "  I  said 
to  one  of  the  young  ladies  in  our  Public 
Library,  "  and  I  would  like  to  take  several  of  her 
books  home,  to  look  them  over." 

"There  are  none  in,"  she  replied. 

"  None  in,  when  I  see  by  your  catalogues  you 
have  several  of  each  of  her  more  than  fifty  vol- 
umes ? " 

"Oh!  there  is  one  in — Mrs.  Harry  Harper's 
Awakening,  but  that  will  probably  be  taken  out 
during  the  day." 

"  What  is  the  reason  '  Pansy's '  books  are  al- 
ways in  demand  ? " 

"  Because  they  are  bright  reading  for  young 
people,  and  as  pure  as  they  are  bright,  and  we 
like  to  specially  recommend  them.  When  hun- 
72 


MRS.    G.    R.    ALDEN    ("  PANSY  ").  73 

dreds  come  to  us,  and  ask  what  they  shall  read, 
among  those  of  the  few  unexceptionable  writers  we 
can  always  speak  well  of  the  '  Pansy  books,'  and 
the  boys  and  girls  always  come  back  pleased,  and 
ask  for  others  by  that  author." 

What  is  true  of  "  the  Pansy  books,"  in  the  Pub- 
lic Library  of  Cleveland,  I  doubt  not  to  be  true  of 
them  in  the  libraries  of  other  cities. 

I  have  just  been  reading  Mrs.  Alden's  One  Com- 
monplace Day.  I  have  been  with  poor  Kate  Hart- 
zell  to  the  picnic,  and  felt  ashamed  of  Fannie 
Copeland,  or  any  other  girl  who  is  too  proud  to 
associate  with  a  noble-hearted  young  woman  be- 
cause she  helps  to  wash  dishes  and  make  bread. 
I  have  felt  a  great  liking  for  Mildred  Powers,  who, 
though  her  father  was  a  judge  at  Washington, 
put  on  no  airs,  and  was  thoroughly  kind  to  every- 
body. I  have  followed  Kate  to  the  home  of  the 
drunken  father  and  drunken  college-brother,  and 
have  seen  how  a  girl  really  can  be  a  ministering 
angel.  I  understand,  I  think,  the  reasons  for  the 
perennial  popularity  of  the  "  Pansy  books."  They 
waken  the  music  of  the  noble  chords  of  the  soul. 


74  MRS.   G.    R.   ALDEN    ("  PANSY "). 

In  their  influence,  as  compared  with  that  of  the 
usual  Sunday-school  book,  or  work  of  light  fiction, 
lies  the  difference  that  exists  between  waltz  and 
oratorio. 

It  was  years  ago  that  I  read  Ester  Ried,  and 
cried  over  Ester's  death,  as  I  suppose  thousands 
of  others  have  done.  After  that  I  was  always 
wondering  how  the  author  of  that  most  magical 
book  talked  and  looked  and  if  I  should  like  her  if 
I  ever  saw  her. 

One  day  I  heard  that  "  Pansy  "  was  to  conduct 
the  primary  department  of  the  Sunday-school 
Assembly  at  Framingham,  Mass.  So  I  went  out 
from  Boston  to  hear  her. 

When  I  arrived,  I  found  a  crowded  house  lis- 
tening to  a  sweet-faced  woman,  in  early  life,  much 
younger  than  I  had  supposed,  with  a  rich,  pleasant 
voice,  heard  in  every  part  of  the  house,  and  with 
a  most  attractive  and  womanly  manner.  She  was 
natural,  interesting  and  earnest.  It  is  unneces- 
sary to  add  that  I  liked  her. 

And  now  what  has  been  the  history  of  this  very 
successful  woman  ? 


MRS.   G.    R.    ALDEN    ("PANSY"). 


MRS.    G.    R.    ALDEN    ("  PANSY  ").  77 

Born  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  in  1842,  she  had  two 
blessings,  perhaps  the  greatest  earthly  gifts  :  a 
father  and  mother  who  were  wise,  patient,  tender, 
helpful  under  all  circumstances.  The  father  held 
wonderfully  pronounced  convictions  on  all  the  great 
questions  of  the  day ;  he  was  a  strong  temperance 
man,  a  strong  anti-slavery  man,  a  leader  in  every 
moral  reform,  and  pressing  forward  alone  often- 
times, for  public  opinion  was  not  educated  up  to 
his  standard,  whereas  now  he  would  have  hosts  of 
co-laborers.  The  noble  man  standing  solitary  upon 
advanced  positions,  upon  high  lonely  look-outs, 
lived  half  a  century  ahead  of  his  time.  The 
mother  was  a  sunny-hearted,  self-forgetful  woman, 
devoted  to  all  that  was  pure  and  "  of  good  report." 

Their  little  girl,  Isabella,  received  her  now 
famous  name  of  "  Pansy,"  from  an  incident  in  her 
baby-life.  The  mother  had  a  choice  bed  of  great 
purple  and  yellow  pansy  blossoms,  which  she  was 
treasuring  for  a  special  occasion.  One  morning 
the  wee  child,  being  in  a  helpful,  loving  mood, 
sallied  out,  and  picked  them  every  one,  and  bring- 
ing the  treasures  in  her  arms  showered  them  in 


78  MRS.   G.   R.   ALDEN    ("  PANSY "). 

her  mother's  lap,  with  the  generous  statement 
that  they  were  "  every  one  for  her." 

They  were  to  have  been  used  on  the  evening 
following,  and  the  good  mother  was  much  dis- 
turbed ;  but  the  father  mounted  his  baby  in  tri- 
umph on  his  shoulders,  and  called  her  his  own 
little  pansy-blossom ;  and  from  that  time  the  sweet 
name  clung  to  her. 

Thus  gentle  was  the  man  of  strong  thought, 
over  a  thing  that  could  not  be  helped,  and  which 
was  done  in  innocency.  A  less  thoughtful  parent 
might  have  punished  the  child,  and  then  wondered 
as  she  grew  older  that  she  did  not  develop  lovelier 
traits  !  How  often  we  spoil  the  flowers  in  our 
home  gardens! 

A  little  incident  which  I  have  heard  Mrs.  Alden 
relate,  shows  not  only  the  love  within  that  early 
home,  but  the  skill  of  the  father  in  the  character- 
forming  of  his  child.  "I  recall,"  said  she,  "a 
certain  rainy  day,  when  I  hovered  aimlessly  from 
sitting-room  to  kitchen,  alternately  watching  my 
father  at  his  writing,  and  my  mother  at  her  cake- 
making.  She  was  baking,  I  remember,  a  certain 


MRS.    G.    R.    ALDEN    ("  PANSY ").  79 

sort  known  among  us  as  'patty-cakes,'  with  scal- 
loped edges,  and  raisins  peeping  out  all  over  their 
puffy  sides.  I  put  in  an  earnest  plea  for  one  of 
the  'patties'  as  it  came  from  the  oven,  and  was 
refused.  Disconsolately  I  wandered  back  to 
father's  side.  He  was  busy  with  his  annual  ac- 
counts. 

"  Our  home  was  in  a  manufacturing  town,  where 
the   system  of   exchange,    known   as    'due-bills,' 
was  in  vogue.     Something  caught  my  eye  which 
suggested  the  term  to  me,  and  I  asked  an    expla- 
nation. 

"  Father  gave  it  briefly.  Then  I  wanted  to 
know  whether  people  always  earned  the  amount 
mentioned  in  the  due-bill,  and  my  father  replied 
that  of  course  one  had  the  right  to  issue  a  due- 
bill  to  a  man  who  had  earned  nothing,  if  for  any 
reason  he  desired  to  favor  him,  and  that  then  the 
sum  would  become  that  man's  due,  because  of  the 
name  signed. 

"  I  remember  the  doleful  tone  in  which  I  said, 
'  I  wish  I  had  a  due-bill.'  My  father  laughed,  tore 
a  bit  of  paper  from  his  note-book,  and  printed  on 


8o  MRS.  G.   R.   ALDEN    ("  PANSY "). 

it  in  letters  which  his  six-year-old  daughter  could 
read,  the  words: 

DEAR  MOTHER: 

PLEASE  GIVE  OUR  LITTLE  GIRL  A  PATTY- 
CAKE  FOR  MY  SAKE.  FATHER. 

"  I  carried  my  due-bill  in  some  doubt  to  my 
mother,  for  she  was  not  given  to  changing  her 
mind,  but  I  can  seem  to  see  the  smile  on  her  face 
as  she  read  the  note,  and  feel  again  the  pressure 
of  the  plump  warm  cake  which  was  promptly 
placed  in  my  hand. 

"  The  incident  took  on  special  significance  from 
the  fact  that  I  gave  it  another  application,  as  chil- 
dren are  so  apt  to  do.  As  I  knelt  that  evening, 
repeating  my  usual  prayer:  '  Now  Hay  me  down  to 
sleep?  a°d  closed  it  with  the  familiar  words :  '  And 
this  I  ask  for  Jesus'  sake,  there  flashed  over  my  mind 
the  conviction  that  this  petition  was  like  the  '  due- 
bill  '  which  my  father  had  made  me  —  to  be  claimed 
because  of  the  mighty  name  signed.  I  do  not 
know  that  any  teaching  of  my  life  gave  me  a 
stronger  sense  of  assurance  in  prayer  than  this 
apparently  trivial  incident." 


MRS.   G.    R.   ALDEN    ("  PANSY").  8l 

"  Pansy  "  began  to  write  little  papers  very  early 
in  life,  which  she  called  "compositions,"  and  which 
were  intended  for  her  parents  only.  From  her 
babyhood  she  kept  a  journal  where  the  various 
events  of  the  day  were  detailed  for  the  benefit  of 
these  same  watchful  parents.  There  could  have 
been  little  that  was  exciting  or  novel  in  this  girlish 
life,  but  the  child  was  thus  trained  to  express  her 
thoughts,  and  to  be  observing  —  two  good  aids  in 
her  after-life.  She  was  also  encouraged  to  send 
long  printed  letters  each  week  to  her  absent  sister, 
telling  her  of  the  home-life,  and  describing  per- 
sons and  places.  "  Pansy  "  was  very  happy  in  all 
this  work,  stimulated  by  gentle  appreciation  and 
criticism. 

When  "  Pansy  "  was  perhaps  ten  years  old,  one 
morning  the  old  clock,  which  she  "really  and 
truly "  supposed  regulated  the  sun,  suddenly 
stopped.  Such  an  event  had  never  before  oc- 
curred. She  considered  it  worthy  of  a  special 
chronicle,  and  forthwith  wrote  the  story  of  its 
hitherto  useful  life,  and  the  disasters  which  might 
have  resulted  from  its  failure  in  duty.  This  clock 


82  MRS.    G.    R.    ALDEN    ("  PANSY "). 

was  very  dear  to  the  father  and  mother,  being  as- 
sociated with  the  beginning  of  their  early  married 
life.  When  "  Pansy's  "  story  was  read,  she  was  star- 
tled, almost  frightened,  over  this  discovery — that 
it  drew  tears  to  her  father's  eyes.  He  said  he 
would  like  to  have  the  story  in  print,  the  better  to 
preserve  it,  and  that  she  might  sign  to  it  the  name 
of  "Pansy,"  both  because  that  was  his  pet  name 
for  her,  and  because  the  language  of  the  flower 
was  "tender  and  pleasant  thoughts,"  and  these 
she  had  given  him  by  her  story. 

How  pleased  the  little  girl  was  that  she  had 
made  him  happy,  and  that  when  a  real  story  of 
hers  was  in  black-and-white  where  the  world 
could  read  it,  none  would  know  the  real  author 
except  the  family.  How  her  heart  beat  when  the 
little  ten-year-old  author  looked  upon  her  first 
printed  article,  all  those  know  who  have  ever 
written  for  the  press. 

Her  first  book,  Helen  Lester,  was  not  published 
until  ten  years  later.  She  wrote  it  in  competition 
for  a  prize,  and  was  so  fortunate  as  to  gain  it. 
This  greatly  encouraged  her,  though  her  best 


MRS.    G.    R.    ALDEN    ("  PANSY  ").  83 

encouragement  was,  as  she  says,  "  the  satisfaction 
which  the  little  printed  volume  bearing  the  pet- 
name,  '  Pansy,'  gave  to  my  father  and  mother." 

Following  upon  that  first  little  book,  "  Pansy's  " 
literary  work  has  been  constant  and  most  success- 
ful. She  has  written  between  fifty  and  sixty  vol- 
umes, of  which  over  one  hundred  thousand  copies 
are  sold  annually.  They  are  in  every  Sunday- 
school,  and  in  well-nigh  every  home.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  Ester  Ried  has  had  the  largest  sale, 
and  has  exerted  the  most  beneficent  influence 
of  all  her  works.  Of  this  book,  Mrs.  Alden  says  : 
"  The  closing  chapters  were  written  while  I  was 
watching  the  going  out  of  my  blessed  father's  life. 
To  the  last  he  maintained  his  deep  interest  in  it, 
and  expressed  his  strong  conviction  that  it  would 
do  good  work.  It  went  out  hallowed  with  his 
prayers,  and  is  still  bearing  fruit  which  will  add 
to  his  joy,  I  believe,  in  heaven.  The  last  chapter 
was  written  in  the  summer  of  1870  with  the  tears 
dropping  on  my  father's  new-made  grave." 

The  titles  of  Mrs.  Alden's  books  are  familiar  in 
all  households :  Four  Girls  at  Chautauqua,  with 


84  MRS.   G.    R.   ALDEN    ("  PANSY"). 

its  charming  sequel,  Chaulauqua  Girls  at  Home, 
Tip  Lewis  and  his  Lamp,  Three  People,  Links  in 
Rebecca's  Life,  Julia  Ried,  Ruth  ErskinJs  Crosses, 
The  King's  Daughter,  The  Browning  Boys,  From 
Different  Standpoints,  Mrs.  Harry  Harper's  Awaken- 
ing, The  Pocket-Measure,  Spun  From  Fact,  etc.  — 
titles  familiar  in  all  Public  Libraries,  and  to 
Sunday-school  librarians  in  all  denominations. 
Though  she  is  an  adept  in  the  arts  and  peculiar 
fascinations  of  the  novelist,  a  master-analyst  of 
the  subtler  workings  of  the  human  heart,  she  has 
from  the  outset  dedicated  her  work  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  home-life  and 
in  the  business-life ;  to  making  alive  and  impor- 
tant and  binding  and  "altogether  lovely,"  the  laws 
of  the  Bible.  The  glittering  prospects  of  other 
fields  in  literature  have  not  allured  her  aside. 

"But  Mrs.  Alden's  books  are  only  a  portion  of 
her  life-work.  Her  husband,  Rev.  G.  R.  Alden, 
is  the  pastor  of  a  large  church,  and  she  works 
faithfully  at  his  side,  having  a  high  ideal  of  the 
duties  and  peculiar  opportunities  of  a  minister's 
wife.  She  is  president  of  the  missionary  soci- 


MRS.   G.    R.   ALDEN    ("  PANSY").  85 

eties,  organizer  and  manager  of  a  young  people's 
branch,  superintendent  of  the  primary  department 
of  the  Sunday-school,  and  the  private  counsellor 
of  hundreds  of  young  people.  While  she  enjoys 
her  literary  work,  she  makes  it  subservient  to  her 
church  and  Sunday-school  work. 

She  says,  "  My  rule  has  been  to  write  when  I 
can  get  a  chance,  subject  to  the  interruptions 
which  come  to  a  mother,  a  housekeeper,  and  a 
pastor's  wife." 

Yet  for  seventeen  years  Mrs.  Alden  has  been 
under  contract  (never  broken)  to  keep  a  serial 
story  running  in  the  Herald  and  Presbyter,  through 
the  winter;  and  for  ten  years  she  has  given  her 
summers  largely  to  normal-class  work  at  all  the 
principal  Sunday-school  assemblies,  having  been 
several  times  at  Chautauqua,  Framingham  and 
Florida,  and  is  under  engagement  to  do  the  same 
work  in  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Wisconsin  and  Ten- 
nessee. 

One  would  suppose  that  with  all  this  work, 
"Pansy's"  hands  would  be  full  to  overflowing. 
But  she  finds  time  to  do  more  than  this.  For  twelve 


86  MRS.    G.    R.   ALDEN    ("  PANSY "). 

years  she  has  prepared  the  Sunday-school  lessons 
for  the  primary  department  of  the  Westminster 
Teacher,  the  organ  of  the  Presbyterian  Board,  and 
has  been  for  two  or  more  years  the  editor  of  their 
Primary  Quarterly. 

And  there  is  more  to  tell.  For  eleven  years 
she  has  edited  the  Pansy,  the  well-known  Sunday 
magazine  for  boys  and  girls,  and  there  is  always 
in  this  a  serial  story  from  her  pen  and  a  continued 
Golden-Text  story,  besides  innumerable  short 
stories,  which  now,  collected,  make  a  complete 
Primary  Sunday-school  Library  of  about  forty 
volumes. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  things  in  connec- 
tion with  this  magazine,  is  the  "  Pansy  Society," 
composed  of  those  children  who  are  subscribers, 
and  who  are  pledged  to  try  to  overcome  some 
besetting  fault,  and  who  take  a  whisper-motto: 
"  I  will  do  it  for  Jesus'  sake."  All  who  join,  have 
a  badge,  a  beautiful  pansy  painted  on  white  satin, 
and  fastened  at  the  top  by  a  silver  pin. 

The  members  of  this  society  from  Maine  to 
Louisiana,  write  to  "  Pansy,"  and  mother-fashion, 


MRS.    G.    R.    ALDEN    ("  PANSY  ").  87 

she  answers  them,  a  hundred  or  more  a  week. 
Already  there  are  thousands  of  members,  who  are 
trying  to  stop  fretting,  to  obey  parents,  to  be  pa- 
tient, to  say  only  kind  words  of  others,  to  over- 
come carelessness,  and  to  make  somebody  happy. 
The  amount  of  good  done  by  this  beautiful,  simple 
means  to  form  correct  habits  in  early  life,  is  sim- 
ply incalculable. 

The  letters  from  the  little  ones  among  the  mem- 
bers are  full  of  naive  interest,  many  written  with  a 
hand  just  beginning  to  do  its  first  work  with  the  pen. 

One  older  child  writes  : 

Mamma  says  I  ought  to  tell  you  at  the  commencement  that 
I  am  eleven  years  old,  but  a  poor  penman,  and  she  is  afraid 
you  cannot  read  my  letter,  but  I  will  try  and  do  my  best.  I 
have  taken  The  Pansy  for  two  years  and  enjoy  it  very  much. 
After  reading  it  I  send  it  in  a  mission  barrel  to  the  children 
in  Utah.  I  had  rather  keep  them,  but  mamma  thinks  I 
onght  to  let  some  one  else  enjoy  them.  I  have  read  all 
your  books  except  one  or  two  of  the  last.  From  reading 
Pocket  Measure  I  learned  how  nice  it  was  to  give.  Mamma 
especially  likes  Mrs.  Solomon  Smith  Looking  On.  I  would 
like  to  become  a  member  of  the  Pansy  Society.  I  have 
tried  for  a  week  to  find  the  fault  that  I  want  most  to  over- 
come, but  I  do  not  know  which  one  it  is,  I  have  so  many ; 
it  seems  to  me  as  if  everyone  else  had  but  one  fault.  One 


88  MRS.    G.    R.    ALDEN    ("  PANSY "). 

is  my  not  obeying  quickly  when  mamma  speaks.  I  had 
rather  read  your  books  and  magazine  than  do  what  I  ought. 
I  do  like  to  read  very  much.  Another  is  my  temper  which 
is  very  quick ;  when  anything  is  said  which  irritates  me  I 
speak  quick  even  to  my  dear  mamma.  I  pray  over  it  and 
work  hard  to  overcome  it.  .  .  I  have  a  picture  of  you 
which  papa  is  going  to  have  framed  and  hung  up  in  my 
chamber,  so  that  I  can  look  at  it  and  think  of  you. 

Letters  come,  too,  from  mothers  and  teachers, 
telling  of  the  beautiful  work  of  the  Pansy  Socie- 
ties. One  mother  writes  of  her  own  home  club 
formed  of  her  six  children.  She  says : 

We  are  trying  to  make  its  influence  for  good  extend  far 
and  near.  At  Christmas  we  got  together  a  large  lot  of  old 
toys,  picture-books,  etc.,  with  boxes  of  cake  and  bon-bons, 
and  sent  them  to  some  poor  children  in  our  community  who 
were  not  able  to  buy  new  ones.  We  also  sent  a  box  of 
Christmas  goodies  to  each  of  the  real  old  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen living  near  us,  who  were  likely  to  be  overlooked  in 
the  overflow  of  young  life  surrounding  them.  Also  sent 
out  some  suitable  presents  and  eatables  to  needy  colored 
families. 

For  St.  Valentine's  Day  some  valentines  were  prepared 
and  sent  to  such  children  as  would  be  likely  to  be  forgotten 
on  this  festive  occasion.  The  Pansy  has  been  a  regular 
visitor  here  for  the  past  four  or  five  years,  and  we  would 
feel  very  much  as  if  one  of  the  family  were  gone,  if  we  were 
deprived  of  it. 


MRS.    G.    R.   ALDEN    ("  PANSY  ").  89 

Mrs.  Alden  is  still  in  the  fresh  prime  of  her 
strength.  She  carries  her  work  with  quick  step 
and  sunny  uplook.  She  is  so  wise  and  so  friendly, 
so  good  an  interpreter  —  let  us  be  glad  that  the 
eloquent  pen  is  a  swift  one  and  tireless. 


CHAPTER  V. 

MARY   VIRGINIA   TERHUNE  ("MARION    HARLAND "). 

TO  be  a  successful  writer  of  novels  and  of 
cookery  books,  the  helpful  wife  of  an  emi- 
nent pastor,  a  leader  in  all  the  benevolent  work 
and  social  life  of  a  city  parish,  and  a  most  careful 
and  responsible  mother,  show,  to  say  the  least,  great 
versatility  of  talent  and  great  executive  ability. 
Such  a  woman  is  "  Marion  Harland." 

Born  in  Amelia  County,  Virginia,  of  a  father 
descended  from  Puritan  stock,  Samuel  Hawes  of 
Dorchester,  Mass.,  and  of  an  equally  intelligent 
and  refined  mother,  whose  ancestor  was  the  brother 
of  Captain  John  Smith,  the  young  girl  came  natu- 
rally into  an  inheritance  of  marked  traits  and  tal- 
ents, energies  and  convictions. 

At  ten  years  of  age  the  little  Mary  Virginia 
was  absorbed  in  Rollin's  Ancient  History,  having 
90 


MARY  V.   TERHUNE    ("MARION   HARLAND ").      QI 

read  to  the  fifth  volume.  The  faithful,  thoughtful 
mother  encouraged  her  children  to  read  to  her 
while  she  sewed,  and  thus  Virginia  and  her  sister 
went  through  Pollock's  Course  of  Time,  Pilgrim's 
Progress  and  Plutarch's  Lives,  and  knew  by  heart 
whole  pages  of  Paradise  Lost,  Cowper's  Task,  and 
Thomson's  Seasons.  For  light  reading  they  in- 
dulged in  Godey's  Lady's  Book  and  Graham's  Mag- 
azine. 

Beginning  to  write  for  the  press  at  fourteen, 
Virginia  had  a  story  accepted  at  Godey's  when 
she  was  sixteen,  called  "  Marrying  Through  Pru- 
dential Motives."  This  story  was  copied  into  an 
English  paper,  translated  into  French  for  a  Paris- 
ian journal,  re-translated  into  an  English  periodi- 
cal, and  finally  copied  in  America  as  an  English 
tale.  About  this  time,  too,  she  won  a  fifty-dollar 
prize  for  a  story ;  and  so  pleased  were  the  editors 
that  they  advertised  to  learn  the  real  name  of  their 
anonymous  contributor. 

Thus  encouraged,  the  young  Southern  girl  de- 
termined to  write  a  novel.  When  it  was  finished, 
she  broke  the  astounding  news  to  her  father. 


92       MARY   V.   TERHUNE    ("MARION    HARLAND"). 

"  How  long  have  you  been  writing  it  ?  "  he  asked. 

"I  wrote  the  rough  draught  three  years  ago. 
Within  a  year  I  have  written  it  out  in  full.  I 
should  like  to  publish  it." 

So  the  manuscript  of  Alone,  a  very  famous  novel 
in  its  day,  was  taken  to  a  Richmond  publisher  for 
examination.  The  young  author  waited  for  days 
and  weeks  and  months.  Finally,  the  father  asked 
that  the  manuscript  be  returned,  and  with  it  came 
this  note : 

"  I  regret  that  the  young  author's  impatience  to 
regain  possession  of  her  bantling  has  rendered  it 
impossible  for  me  to  read  more  than  three  pages 
of  the  story.  From  what  I  have  read,  however,  I 
judge  that  it  would  not  be  safe  to  publish  it  on 
speculation." 

Mr.  Hawes  believed  in  the  ability  of  his  daugh- 
ter, however,  and  at  once  assumed  the  expense  of 
publishing.  "  Bring  it  out  in  good  style,  printing 
and  binding,"  he  said ;  "  advertise  it  properly,  and 
send  bills  to  me." 

Alone  was  published  when  Virginia  was  twenty- 
one,  and  at  once  made  a  genuine  and  wide  sensa- 


MARY   V.   TERHUNE   ("MARION   HARLAND ").      93 

tion.  It  was  a  pure  and  beautiful  story,  and  it 
was  written  in  clear,  fine  English.  "Marion  Har- 
land,"  for  thus  she  signed  her  literary  work,  sud- 
denly found  herself  famous.  In  less  than  two 
years  a  Tauchnitz  edition  appeared,  and  in  these 
thirty  years  since  over  one  hundred  thousand 
copies  of  Alone  have  been  sold,  a  record  attach- 
ing to  very  few  books. 

The  following  year,  1855,  a  second  novel,  The 
Hidden  Path,  came  from  her  pen,  and  that  also 
met  with  a  large  sale. 

Meantime  another  great  happiness  had  come 
into  her  life.  Edward  Payson  Terhune,  the  son 
of  Judge  John  Terhiuie  of  New  Brunswick,  N.  J., 
had  been  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Presbytery, 
and  had  accepted  a  call  to  Charlotte  Court  House, 
Va.  This  is  a  place  abounding  with  historical 
associations.  Here  Patrick  Henry  made  his  last 
public  speech  and  John  Randolph  his  maiden  ad- 
dress. Both  these  statesmen  are  buried  in  the 
neighborhood.  Here,  when  "  Marion  Harland  " 
was  twenty-three,  she  came  as  a  bride.  The  mar- 
riage was  a  love-match,  and  has  brought  her  a  do- 


94      MARY   V.    TERHUNE    ("  MARION    HARLAND  "). 

mestic  life  of  unusual  happiness.  It  is  said,  in 
proof,  that  for  nearly  thirty  years,  whenever  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Terhune  have  been  absent  from  each 
other,  they  have  never  failed  to  write  daily 
letters. 

"  Marion  Harland  "  did  not  lay  down  her  liter- 
ary work  when  she  assumed  her  household  and 
church  duties.  She  merely  "economized  time," 
and  found  hours  for  each.  In  1857,  a  year  after 
her  marriage,  Moss- Side  was  published. 

The  next  year  Dr.  Terhune  was  called  to  the 
First  Reformed  Church  in  Newark,  N.  J.,  where 
he  and  his  family  spent  eighteen  happy  and  useful 
years  their  home  a  centre  of  delightful  influences. 

The  pretty  children,  of  whom  there  were  six 
finally,  evidently  did  not  hinder  the  mother's  liter- 
ary work.  The  writing  of  Nemesis,  a  novel  which 
appeared  in  1860,  was  attended  by  amusing  cir- 
cumstances. Mrs.  Terhune's  writing-table  stood 
near  a  favorite  window ;  and  to  the  leg  of  this  table 
she  tied  one  end  of  a  string,  the  other  end  being 
attached  to  the  railing  of  a  cradle,  set  in  a  dark- 
ened corner  where  Baby  Christine  took  her  long 


MARY    VIRGINIA    TERHUNK    ('-.MARION    HARLANU"). 


MARY  V.   TERHUNE   ("  MARION    HARLAND  ").      97 

forenoon  naps.  When  Baby  moved,  the  mother, 
without  distraction  of  thought,  touched  the 
string. 

In  1863  Husks  was  published;  in  1865  Hus- 
bands and  Homes ;  in  1867  Sunny  bank  and  Christ- 
mas Holly;  in  1868  Ruby's  Husband,  dedicated 
"  To  him  who  for  many  years  has  been  to  me  adviser, 
co-worker  and  best  earthly  friend"  ;  in  1869  Phemie's 
Temptation;  in  1870  At  Last ;  in  1871  The  Empty 
Heart;  in  ^^-^  Jessamine ;  seventeen  novels  in  all, 
pure,  and  elevating  books  which  have  had  a  wide 
reading. 

When  "  Marion  Harland  "  was  married,  friends 
thoughtfully  bestowed  upon  her  five  different  cook- 
books. Each  was  unlike  the  others,  and  often 
contradictory ;  and  the  more  the  young  house- 
keeper experimented,  the  more  perplexed  she  be- 
came. At  last,  however,  as  good  receipts  proved 
themselves,  she  laid  them  aside  for  future  use. 

These  choice  and  reliable  receipts  in  fifteen 
years  had  grown  into  a  useful  collection.  Think- 
ing she  might  benefit  young  housekeepers,  in  1870, 
she  visited  Scribner  &  Co.  and  offered  to  them 


98      MARY   V.    TERHUNE    ("MARION    HARLAND"). 

the  MS.  of  her  now  world-famous  Common  Sense  in 
the  Household. 

They  hesitated  about  accepting.  "  It  will  not 
amount  to  much,"  remarked  Mr.  Scribner  to  his 
partners,  it  is  said,  "  but  perhaps  by  taking  it  we 
can  obtain  a  friendly  hold  upon  her  and  so  be 
given  the  publishing  of  her  other  books." 

But  "  Marion  Harland  "  was  already  known  to 
the  women  of  the  land  as  a  true-minded  Christian 
woman,  and  they  said,  "We  can  depend  upon 
what  she  states."  It  followed  that  the  sale  of  the 
book  was  an  astonishment  to  the  publishers,  and 
probably  to  the  author  as  well.  Since  its  publication 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  copies  have  been 
sold  in  America,  and  half  that  number  abroad.  It 
has  been  translated  into  Arabic,  French  and  Ger- 
man, and  a  special  translation  is  soon  to  be  issued 
for  the  use  of  German  residents  in  America.  This 
Mrs.  Terhune  considers  a  worthy  and  precious 
success. 

Other  kindred  books  have  since  come  from 
her  pen,  constituting  a  "  Common  Sense  "  series : 
Breakfast,  Luncheon  and  Tea,  and  the  Dinner 


MARY   V.    TERHUNE    ("  MARION    HARLAND").      99 

Year-Book.  The  first  is  made  up  of  entirely 
fresh  instructions,  with  some  admirable  "Familiar 
Talks  "  on  the  need  of  every  woman  to  have  a 
trade  or  profession,  and  on  various  other  home- 
topics.  "  How  many  women,"  she  asks,  "  could, 
if  bereft  of  fortune  or  support  to-morrow  or  next 
week,  or  next  year,  earn  a  living  for  themselves, 
to  say  nothing  of  their  children?"  The  latter 
book  contains  a  bill-of-fare  for  the  dinner  of  every 
day  in  the  year,  besides  twelve  company  dinners. 
In  1883  The  Cottage  Kitchen,  composed  of  inex- 
pensive receipts,  was  published ;  in  1885  Cookery 
for  Beginners  (D.  Lothrop  &  Co.),  and  a  Common 
Sense  Calendar,  with  a"  receipt  for  each  working- 
day  in  the  year,  and  some  helpful  words  of 
counsel. 

Notwithstanding  all  this  practical  work  with  her 
pen,  "  Marion  Harland's  "  benevolent  and  church- 
work  has  yearly  grown  more  extensive.  During 
her  husband's  pastorate  in  Newark,  Mrs.  Terhune 
became  the  President  of  the  Women's  Christian 
Association,  holding  the  office  until  her  removal 
from  the  city.  The  Society  had  five  different 


100      MARY   V.   TERHUNE    ("MARION    HARLAND"). 

branches  of  labor.  One  "  hard  winter  "  they  gave 
work  to  more  than  three  hundred  sewing-women, 
opening  and  conducting  a  store  for  the  sale  of  gar- 
ments made.  So  skilful  was  the  management 
that  while  thousands  of  dollars  were  paid  out,  and 
thousands  of  articles  sold,  in  the  spring  a  small 
balance  remained  in  the  treasury,  even  after  all 
their  generous  giving  of  money. 

One  incident  will  perhaps  illustrate  "  Marion 
Harland's  "  force  of  character  as  well  as  nobility. 
In  January,  1874,  she  buried  one  of  the  most 
gifted  of  her  children,  the  "  Ailsie  "  of  her  book 
entitled  My  Little  Love.  A  month  before  this  she 
had  ruptured  a  blood-vessel  in  her  right  lung. 
The  grief  and  excitement  of  the  child's  sudden 
death  resulted  in  a  hemorrhage,  and  she  was  con- 
fined to  her  bed.  Two  days  after  the  funeral  the 
chairman  of  the  "  cutting-out  committee  "  of  the 
Association,  called  and  desired  to  see  Mrs.  Ter- 
hune  on  pressing  business.  Two  hundred  women 
were  at  the  work-rooms  waiting  to  return  home 
with  work.  The  treasury  was  empty.  There  was 
not  a  yard  of  material  to  be  cut  up.  The  women 


MARY   V.    TERHUNE    ("MARION    HARLAND ").       IOI 

were  depending  upon  this  work  for  bread.  What 
could  be  done  ? 

Mrs.  Terhune,  ill  as  she  was,  determined  to  see 
her;  and  she  has  often  said  that  she  thinks  this 
visit  saved  her  reason,  and  perhaps  her  life.  She 
was  obliged  to  forget  her  darling  child  and  think 
and  act  for  others.  She  sent  her  friend  to  a  store 
where  she  had  previously  made  purchases,  and 
asked  that  a  number  of  pieces  of  cloth  be  deliv- 
ered immediately  at  the  work-rooms. 

Then  she  arose,  dressed  herself,  took  her  car- 
riage and  drove  to  the  office  of  a  kind-hearted 
merchant.  He  came  to  the  curb-stone  and  she 
stated  the  case  briefly.  He  cast  one  look  at  her 
pale  face  and  her  mourning  dress,  and  his  eyes 
filled  with  tears. 

"Wait  a  minute,"  he  said,  as  he  turned  back 
into  the  office. 

Re-appearing,  he  handed  her  a  check  for  a  large 
amount,  and  notes  to  half  a  dozen  wealthy  men 
which  would,  he  said,  "  save  her  voice  from  the 
strain  of  telling  the  story." 

Within  an  hour,  Mrs.  Terhune  was  making  her 


102      MARY  V.   TERHUNE    ("MARION   HARLAND "). 

way  through  the  rows  of  anxious  sewing-women, 
to  the  hall  where  twenty  pairs  of  shears  were  fly- 
ing through  the  rolls  of  cloth,  and  laid  before  the 
treasurer  a  package  of  bills  —  sufficient  to  pay  the 
poor  workers  for  three  weeks,  and  to  provide  ma- 
terials for  a  month's  operations.  So  heroic  can  a 
woman  be  who  has  strength  of  character  and  a 
tender  heart. 

The  same  winter  the  Association  netted  a  thou- 
sand dollars  by  a  single  performance  of  the  cantata 
of  The  Haymakers.  The  chorus  of  fifty  voices,  and 
the  members  of  the  orchestra  gave  their  services ; 
but  each  represented  one,  or  more,  and  sometimes 
a  half-dozen  calls  from  the  President,  but  she 
found  time  for  the  work.  She  often  says  she  has 
become  an  optimist  in  charitable  undertakings, 
for  she  "  has  found  people  ready  to  help  in  every 
good  work,  provided  they  are  approached  in  the 
right  way.  Tact  in  this  respect  goes  as  far  as 
energy." 

While  in  Newark  she  taught  a  large  Bible  class 
of  young  girls,  and  was  also  superintendent  of  the 
Infant  Department  of  the  Sabbath-school.  After 


MARY  V.   TERHUNE    ("MARION   HARLAND").       103 

Dr.  Terhune  was  called  to  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  she  took 
charge  of  a  class  of  young  men,  beginning  with 
eight.  When  they  removed  to  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
five  years  later,  Dr.  Terhune  being  called  to  the 
First  Reformed  Church,  there  were  sixty-eight 
young  men  on  the  roll,  and  a  noble  body  of  work- 
ers they  were.  They  had  their  own  class-rooms 
adjoining  the  main  Sunday-school  rotunda,  which 
they  fitted  up  as  reading  and  sitting-rooms,  and 
these  they  kept  open  during  the  week. 

Mrs.  Terhune  has  a  similar  class  in  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.,  who  call  themselves  "her  boys,"  and  for 
whom  she  has  an  affection  largely  akin  to  that 
felt  for  her  own  children.  She  says  : 

"  My  heart  yearns  unspeakably  over  all  young 
things  that  need  love  and  training.  I  think  two 
thirds  of  me  is  '  mother.'  This  was  the  motive 
that  induced  me  to  accept  the  editorship  of  Baby- 
hood. Letters  from  all  parts  of  the  country  ask 
what  are  my  methods  of  managing  classes ;  and 
of  making  friends  of  boys  and  girls.  I  know  but 
one  secret :  to  love  and  sympathize  with  them. 


104      MARY  V.   TERHUNE    ("MARION    HARLAND  "). 

God  bless  them  one  and  all !  '  My  boys '  are 
scattered  far  and  near,  all  over  this  and  other 
lands,  but  they  still  write  to  me,  telling  me  of 
their  prospects  of  business  and  happiness,  ask 
congratulations  when  they  marry  and  sympathy 
when  they  bury  their  dead." 

In  Brooklyn,  Mrs.  Terhune  is  one  of  the  man- 
agers of  the  Training  School  for  Nurses,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Local  Visiting  Committee  of  the  State 
Charities'  Aid  Association,  a  Vice-President  of  a 
Musical  Association  and  First  Director  of  the 
Ladies  Association  of  her  husband's  church. 

The  broken  blood-vessel  above  mentioned  did 
not  heal.  In  1876  a  consultation  of  physicians 
said  Mrs.  Terhune  had  not  three  months  to  live. 
Her  husband  with  his  usual  promptness  and  deci- 
sion, sent  in  his  resignation  to  the  Newark  Church 
by  whom  he  was  greatly  beloved,  sold  his  home, 
furniture  and  horses,  "  burned  the  bridges  behind 
him,"  as  he  said,  and  took  his  wife  to  Europe, 
where  they  remained  for  two  years,  he  acting  as 
Chaplain  of  the  American  Chapel  in  Rome  the 
first  winter,  and  the  second  supplying  the  American 


MARY   V.    TERHUNE    ("MARION    HARLAND").       105 

Church  in  Paris.  Mrs.  Terhune  became  entirely 
restored  to  health,  and  now,  a  little  past  fifty, 
seems  in  the  very  prime  and  full  joy  and  activity 
of  a  vigorous  womanhood. 

She  has  learned  how  with  no  appearance  of 
care  to  constantly  care  for  her  health,  varying 
her  occupations  to  relieve  one  another,  and  giv- 
ing full  time  to  sleep  and  to  out-door  exercise, 
especially  to  walking. 

On  her  return  from  Europe  she  wrote  Loitering* 
in  Pleasant  Paths,  a  most  interesting  and  delight- 
ful book  combining  fine  description  with  much  of 
history,  and  evincing  wide  reading  and  culture. 

One  of  Marion  Harland's  most  valuable  vol- 
umes is  entitled  Eve's  Daughters,  devoted  to  hy- 
gienic common-sense  for  maid,  wife  and  mother. 
She  urges  broad  education  for  girls.  She  says  : 

Mary  may  not  "  keep  up "  her  Latin  after  she  leaves 
school,  and  her  German  may,  from  the  same  date,  become 
to  her  as  truly  a  dead  language.  But  she  will  write  and 
speak  her  mother-tongue  the  better  for  having  learned  the 
one ;  the  breadth  and  grasp  of  her  mind  be  improved  by  the 
study  of  the  other. 

She  has  carried  out  this  idea  in  the  education 


106      MARY   V.    TERHUNE   ("MARION    HARLAND "). 

of  her  own  children.  Her  eldest  daughter,  though 
married,  fitted  herself  for  the  chair  of  English 
Literature  in  any  college,  and  reads  and  converses 
in  five  languages.  Among  other  literary  tasks, 
she  and  her  mother  have  charge  of  the  Household 
Department  of  a  syndicate  of  fifteen  papers. 

Mrs.  Terhune  loses  no  opportunity  to  urge  girls 
to  form  some  definite  aim.  To  mothers  she  says : 

Do  not  —  in  the  absence  of  indications  of  the  divine  thirst 
and  longing  for  musical  expression  which  is  genius  —  sacri- 
fice, diurnally,  two  hours  of  sunshine  and  sweet  airs  and 
such  affluence  of  innocent  delight  in  the  mere  fact  of  being 
alive,  as  only  childhood  ever  knows  this  side  of  the  Land  of 
Eternal  Youth,  to  the  ignoble  ambition  to  have  your  baby 
"accomplished."  .  .  .  Pay  her  for  picking  berries,  hem- 
ming towels,  shelling  peas  and  dozens  of  other  small  tasks, 
stipulating  that  they  must  be  done  well  and  "  on  time."  Let 
her  make  out  her  bills,  keep  her  own  accounts  and  never 
impress  her  with  the  belief  that  she  is  dependent  upon  you 
for  aught  save  love  and  care.  .  .  .  It  is  not  work,  but 
impatient  solicitude,  the  fretting,  teasing  thought  and  care 
for  the  next  minute,  the  next  hour,  the  next  day,  to  which  we 
apply  the  homely  term  "  worry  >"  that  breaks  down  our  school- 
girl. 

So  far  from  the  election  and  study  of  professions  by 
women  acting  unfavorably  upon  domestic  life,  I  believe, 
after  a  tolerably  thorough  examination  of  arguments  and 


MARY  V.   TERHUNE    ("MARION    HARLAND  ").       107 

examples  on  both  sides  of  the  question,  that  the  highest  and 
purest  interests  of  the  Home  are  promoted  by  these.  She 
who  need  not  marry  unless  won  to  the  adoption  of  the  state 
of  wife  by  pure  love  for  him  who  seeks  her,  is  likely  to 
make  a  more  deliberate  and  a  wiser  choice  of  a  husband 
than  she  who  has  done  little  since  she  put  off  long  clothes 
but  dream  and  long  and  angle  for  her  other  half. 

You  may  pass  a  long,  useful,  and  contented  life  without 
learning  how  to  embroider  a  tidy.  .  .  .  No  American 
woman,  however  exalted  or  assured  her  social  rank,  or  what- 
ever -may  be  her  accomplishments,  can  afford  to  remain  igno- 
rant of  practical  housewifery. 

How  has  "  Marion  Harland  "  accomplished  so 
much  work  ?  By  economizing  time  ;  using  spare 
hours  and  minutes  to  shape  articles,  and  carry  on 
stories,  and  while  cooking  or  sewing,  watching  for 
the  opportunity  to  write.  All  her  life  has  been 
subject  to  interruptions ;  her  best  working-hours 
years  ago  were  when  her  children  were  in  bed. 
Now  she  is  usually  at  her  desk  from  nine  o'clock 
until  one,  never  writing  or  studying  in  the  evening 
if  she  can  avoid  it. 

She  says  :  "  Domestic  duties  have  never  ham- 
pered me.  On  the  contrary,  I  work  better  than  if 
I  had  not  thus  had  time  to  think  over  a  composi- 


I08      MARY   V.    TERHUNE    ("MARION    HARLAND "). 

tion  before  rushing  it  into  print.  I  have  knit  a 
pair  of  cradle  blankets  for  my  grandchild  in  the 
intervals  of  composition,  thinking  out  page  by 
page,  as  the  needles  played,  and  laying  them 
down  now  and  then,  to  commit  the  digested  thought 
to  paper. 

One  learns  contentment  and  concentration  of 
thought  by  such  discipline  of  daily  life,  and  to 
manage  temper  and  mind  together." 

She  once  said  to  me :  "  I  love  my  kind  and 
have  tried  to  help  women.  If  the  lowly  places  of 
life  are  brighter,  daily  burdens  that  must  be  borne 
lighter  because  I  have  lived  and  worked,  I  am  sat- 
isfied. I  believe  it  is  possible  to  elevate  house- 
hold '  drudgery '  into  a  Mission  ;  to  make  Home 
the  centre  of  thought  and  duty,  and  yet  help  the 
toilers  in  other  homes." 

Truly,  this  woman  has  glorified  the  common- 
place. In  behalf  of  domestic  home-making  women 
everywhere,  in  cottage  and  in  mansion,  she  has 
bestowed  shaping  thought  and  refining  care  upon 
a  thousand  details  of  household  comforts ;  through 
her  influence  countless  women  have  learned  to 


MARY   V.    TERHUNE    ("MARION    HARLAND  ").       109 

look  upon  cookery  as  a  fine  art.  Her  influence 
upon  the  home  will  endure  for  more  than  this  gen- 
eration ;  indeed  it  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
forces  of  our  time  that  determine  what  shall  be  the 
beliefs  and  ideals  of  the  woman  of  the  future. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

MARGARET. 

NEW  ORLEANS,  with  its  orange-trees,  fra- 
grant with  white  blossoms  and  golden  fruit, 
with  its  verandaed  homes  overgrown  with  roses,  with 
its  house-lawns  bordered  with  sweet  blue  violets,  is 
a  city  long  to  be  remembered  by  a  stranger. 

I  was  glad  to  see  this ;  I  was  glad  to  touch 
the  warm  Southern  hand  with  its  genuine  hospi- 
tality ;  but  I  was  especially  glad  to  see  —  remem- 
bering what  it  represented  to  New  Orleans  —  the 
marble  statue  of  "  Margaret. "  It  stands  in  a 
large  open  square,  and  is  the  first,  I  believe, 
erected  to  a  woman  in  this  country.  "  Margaret " 
is  represented  sitting  in  a  rustic  chair,  dressed  in 
her  usual  costume  —  a  plain  skirt  and  loose  sack, 
with  a  simple  shawl  thrown  over  her  shoulders  ; 
her  arm  encircles  a  pretty  orphan  child, 
no 


THE  STATUE    TO    "  MARGARET    OF    NEW    ORLEANS.' 


MARGARET.  113 

The  face  of  the  woman  is  very  plain  but  very 
kindly.  There  is  no  indication  that  "  Margaret  " 
was  a  woman  of  great  power  or  of  great  fame  ;  the 
statue  is  simply  the  thank-offering  of  a  whole  city 
for  a  beautiful,  unselfish  life,  lived  in  its  midst. 
Many  men  and  women  have  possessed  millions  — 
and  have  spent  all  upon  themselves  ;  Margaret 
spent  her  small  riches  for  others.  Thousands 
about  her  had  unlimited  opportunities  for  educa- 
tion ;  "  Margaret "  could  scarcely  write  her  own 
name.  Yet  to  her,  of  all  our  countrywomen, 
stands  the  beautiful  memorial. 

Who  was  this  "  Margaret "  so  honored  above 
others  ? 

More  than  a  half-century  ago,  there  came  to 
Baltimore,  among  the  Irish  emigrants,  a  young  man 
and  his  wife,  William  and  Margaret  Gaffney,  to 
seek  their  fortunes  in  the  New  World.  They  were 
poor  of  course,  but  they  loved  each  other,  and  were 
happy  to  struggle  together.  By  and  by  a  little 
daughter  came  into  their  home,  whom  they  natu- 
rally called  Margaret,  after  the  mother. 

They  were  not  long  to  enjoy  the  little  daughter 


114  MARGARET. 

or  she  to  know  their  love,  for  both  parents  died 
of  yellow  fever,  leaving  the  helpless  child  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  world  at  large.  Fortunate- 
ly, some  friendly  people,  Mrs.  Richards  and  her 
husband,  had  crossed  from  Wales  on  the  same 
steamer  as  the  Gaffneys,  and  though  Mr.  Richards 
had  just  died  also  of  yellow  fever,  the  stricken  wife 
took  the  wee  child  into  her  own  home. 

The  girl  grew  to  womanhood  in  this  shelter ;  and 
while  she  knew  the  privations  and  wearinesses  of 
poverty  and  lowly  labor,  she  knew  also  from  the 
good  teachings  of  Mrs.  Richards,  that  the  best  of 
all  things  in  the  world  is  loveliness  and  truth  of 
character,  and  this  precious  seed  was  to  bear  fruit 
in  later  years. 

In  due  time  Margaret  was  married,  to  young 
Charles  Haughery.  They  commenced  life  to- 
gether, as  did  her  parents,  with  empty  purses  and 
full  hearts.  But  shadows  soon  began  to  steal  over 
the  little  home.  The  husband's  health  failed,  and 
they  decided  to  move  from  Baltimore  to  New 
Orleans.  But  this  change  of  climate  did  no  good. 
Advised  by  his  physician  that  sea-air  might  prove 


MARGARET.  115 

beneficial,  he  said  good-by  to  his  young  wife  and 
baby-child,  and  sailed  for  Ireland.  The  good-by 
proved  to  be  the  final  farewell,  for  he  died  soon 
after  reaching  his  destination. 

Though  this  loss  was  hard  for  the  wife  to  bear, 
a  second  loss  followed,  the  hardest  a  woman  can 
ever  know  —  the  loss  of  her  only  child  —  and  Mar- 
garet was  alone  again,  poor,  yet  warm-hearted, 
and  loving  all  children  tenderly  —  the  more,  it  may 
be,  that  her  own  arms  were  empty. 

Did  she  sink  in  despair  ?  No.  She  could  feel 
the  hand  that  was  leading  her,  even  in  the  densest 
darkness  of  her  sorrow,  and  she  never  lost  the  full- 
ness of  her  divine  trust,  or  the  tenderness  of  her 
human  love.  As  ground  is  made  mellow  by  har- 
rowing, so  ofttimes  are  hearts  made  fruitful. 

What  should  she  do  for  self-support,  and  to  fill 
her  lonely  life  ?  She  who  was  an  orphan  herself, 
a  widow  and  childless,  wished  that  she  might 
work  for  orphans,  and  to  this  end  she  entered  the 
domestic  service  of  the  Poydras  Orphan  Asylum 
for  Girls.  Here  she  toiled  early  and  late,  some- 
times doing  housework,  and  sometimes  going  out 


Il6  MARGARET. 

to  collect  food  and  money.  How  she  was  dressed, 
or  whether  she  had  ordinary  comforts,  seemed  to 
her  of  no  moment.  Her  life  was  centred  in  the 
asylum. 

One  day  when  she  appealed  to  a  large  grocery 
establishment  for  aid  for  the  orphans,  one  of  the 
firm  laughingly  said,  "  We'll  give  you  all  you  can 
pile  on  a  wheelbarrow,  if  you  will  wheel  it  to  the 
asylum  yourself." 

Margaret  promptly  agreed  to  this,  and  in  a  short 
time  returned  with  her  wheelbarrow,  filled  it  to  its 
utmost  capacity,  and  trundled  it  home  along  the 
sidewalk.  The  young  man  surprised  at  her  cour- 
age, and  admiring  her  noble  spirit,  insisted  on 
wheeling  it  for  her,  but  Margaret  politely  refused, 
saying  she  would  cheerfully  wheel  a  barrow-load 
every  day  for  the  orphans  if  it  were  given  to  her. 

Sister  Regis,  the  Superior  of  the  Sisters  of  Char- 
ity, much  beloved  for  her  self-sacrificing  life,  in 
time  became  Margaret's  warmest  friend  and  ad- 
viser. When  it  was  necessary  to  erect  a  new  Or- 
phan Asylum,  a  large  and  commodious  one  was 
built  on  Camp  street  (in  front  of  which  Margaret's 


MARGARET.  1 17 

monument  now  stands),  and  in  ten  years  Marga- 
ret and  Sister  Regis,  working  together,  had  freed 
it  from  debt.  For  seventeen  years  Margaret  had 
lived  in  the  asylum,  managing  the  large  dairy, 
and  doing  any  and  every  kind  of  work  that  would 
aid  fatherless  and  motherless  children. 

In  1852,  she  decided  to  open  an  independent 
dairy  in  the  upper  part  of  the  city ;  in  this  enter- 
prise she  soon  demonstrated  her  financial  ability. 
Never  wasting  a  cent  upon  her  own  wants  —  in- 
deed she  never  seemed  to  have  any  —  she  scrupu- 
lously devoted  all  profits  to  her  beloved  work. 
Everybody  knew  Margaret's  milk-wagon,  and  her 
kind  plain  face  as  she  went  from  customer  to  cus- 
tomer. 

Then  she  added  the  old  D'Aquin  bakery  to  her 
business.  The  former  proprietor,  who  had  always 
been  generous  to  the  orphans,  had  become  finan- 
cially crippled,  and  borrowing  from  Margaret,  her 
creditor  at  last  was  obliged  to  take  the  bakery 
into  her  own  business.  That  she  succeeded  in 
"  making  money  "  out  of  the  new  branch,  was  due 
to  economy,  sterling  integrity,  and  to  the  fact  that 


Il8  MARGARET. 

everybody  knew  and  respected  and  relied  upon 
her  and'  liked  to  buy  of  her. 

She  opened  her  bakery  in  1860.  Says  George 
W.  Cable,  who  knew  her :  "  But  long  before  that, 
as  well  as  long  and  ever  after  it,  any  man  might 
say  to  you  as  a  strange  woman  passed  in  a  dingy 
milk-cart  —  or  bread-cart  in  later  years  —  sitting 
alone,  and  driving  the  slow,  well-fed  horse,  '  There 
goes  Margaret.'  '  Margaret  who  ? '  '  Margaret, 
the  Orphan's  Friend.'  I  suppose  we  should  have 
forgotten  her  married  name  entirely,  had  not  the 
invoices  of  her  large  establishment  kept  it  before 
us.  '  Go  to  Margaret's '  was  the  word  when  a  coun- 
try order  called  for  anything  that  could  be  bought 
of  her ;  but  the  invoice  would  read : 

New  Orleans,  March  15,  1875. 
MESSRS.  BLACK,  WHITE  &  Co. 

To  MARGARET'S  BAKERY  (Margaret  Haughery)  Dr. 


2  Bbls.  Soda  Crackers,  etc. 


"  And  what  had  she  done,  what  was  she  doing, 
to  make  her  so  famous  ?     Nothing  but  give,  give, 


MARGARET. 

(From  the  f'w/ografh  l>y  Soitby,   113  Ca- al  St.,  New  Orleans.} 


MARGARET.  121 

give,  give  to  the  orphan  boy  and  the  orphan  girl, 
Catholic,  Protestant,  Hebrew,  anything.  Yes,  one 
thing  more  ;  she  gave  and  she  loved.  But  that  was 
all.  Never  a  bid  for  attention.  Never  a  high  seat 
in  any  assembly.  Never  a  place  among  the  proud 
or  the  gay.  No  pomp,  no  luxury,  no  effort  to 
smarten  up  intellectually  and  take  a  tardy  place  in 
the  aristocracy  of  brains.  Nothing  for  herself. 
Riches  and  fame  might  spoil  Solomon  ;  they  did 
not  spoil  Margaret. 

"  Of  education  she  had  almost  nothing ;  of 
beauty  as  little  — to  the  outward  eye  ;  accomplish- 
ments, none ;  exterior  graces,  none  ;  aggressive 
ambition,  the  disposition  to  scheme  or  strive  for 
station  or  preference,  none  ;  sparkling  gayety,  ex- 
uberant mirth,  none,  more  than  you  or  I ;  money, 
some,  a  little,  a  trifle  ;  financial  sagacity,  a  fair 
share,  but  nothing  extraordinary;  frugality?  yes, 
frugality  —  as  to  herself.  What  else  ?  religion  ? 
Yes,  yes!  pure,  sweet,  gentle,  upbubbling,  overflow- 
ing, plentiful,  genuine,  deep,  and  high  ;  a  faith 
proving  itself  incessantly  in  works,  and  a  modesty 
and  unconsciousness  that  made  her  beneficence  as 


122  MARGARET. 

silent  as  a  stream  underground.  Hers  was  one  of 
those  very  rare  natures,  whose  happiness  is  found 
in  blessing,  not  in  being  blessed. 

"  The  whole  town  honored  her.  The  presidents 
of  banks  and  insurance  companies,  of  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  the  Produce  Exchange,  the  Cotton 
Exchange,  none  of  them  commanded  the  humble 
regard,  the  quick  deference,  from  one  merchant  or 
a  dozen,  that  was  given  to  Margaret.  They  called 
her  by  her  baptismal  name  —  as  they  do  queens 
and  saints  —  because  they  loved  her,  and  then 
loved  her  the  more  because  she  went  by  that 
name;  the  name  of  that  sweet  meadow  flower 
which  Wordsworth  calls  '  the  poet's  darling.'  " 

While  the  Civil  War  lasted  her  business  was 
somewhat  checked,  but  never  her  charity. 

During  the  war,  the  Fourth  Louisiana  Regiment 
was  captured  at  Shiloh  and  brought  to  New  Or- 
leans, and  imprisoned  at  the  police  station,  Algiers, 
across  the  river.  The  news  of  their  arrival  sped 
through  the  city,  exciting  the  sympathies  of  thou- 
sands of  women,  who  immediately  sent  presents  of 
clothing,  food  and  niceties.  Margaret,  true  to  her 


MARGARET.  123 

instincts  and  principles,  though  having  no  son  or 
relative  in  the  war,  loaded  a  wagon  with  bread  and 
crackers,  and  accompanied  by  two  negro  men,  ap- 
peared before  the  gateway  of  the  prison,  her  two 
men  bearing  immense  baskets  filled  with  bread, 
on  their  heads. 

The  sentry  on  seeing  her  approach,  slightly  de- 
pressed his  musket  and  commanded,  "  Halt !  " 
Margaret  replied,  "  What  for  ?  " 
The  sentry  again  commanded,  "  Halt ! " 
Margaret  advancing,  said,  "  What  for  ?  " 
Thrice  the  challenge  was  repeated  and  question- 
ing  answer  given.     Then   she,  with   remarkable 
quickness  for  a  woman  weighing  one  hundred  and 
eighty  pounds,  jumped  to  one  side  the  musket, 
seized  the  boy  in  blue  by  both  shoulders,  and  lift- 
ing him  away,  marched  in,  followed  by  her  attend- 
ants.    The  surprised  soldier,  overcome  with  aston- 
ishment, could  but  join  in  the  shout  of  his  comrade 
sentinels,  who  had  witnessed  the  scene. 

During  the  Fourteenth  of  September  fight  a 
young  man,  a  Protestant,  lost  his  leg  ;  Margaret 
tried  to  obtain  for  him  a  situation  at  a  toll-gate, 


124  MARGARET. 

but  failing  in  this,  gave  him  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  to  buy  a  leg ;  then  set  him  up  in  business 
as  a  newspaper-seller,  and  supplied  his  family  with 
bread  during  her  life.  This  young  man  was  a 
pattern-maker  in  a  foundry ;  but  his  wound  inca- 
pacitated him  for  his  position. 

In  the  inundations  to  which  New  Orleans  is 
subject  from  the  overflow  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
Margaret  could  be  seen  daily  in  a  large  boat, 
standing  in  the  midst  of  great  piles  of  bread,  a 
colored  man  paddling  her  through  the  river-streets, 
as  she  dispensed  her  loaves  to  the  half-starved 
families. 

She  never  asked  what  their  race  or  creed.  All 
alike  shared  her  bounty.  Her  life-motto  :  "  God 
has  been  so  good  to  me,  I  must  be  good  to  all." 

The  three  largest  Homes  for  Children  in  New 
Orleans  are  almost  entirely  the  work  of  Margaret, 
as  well  as  the  Home  for  the  Aged  and  Infirm. 
Being  asked  once,  "  Why  don't  you  buy  a  fine 
dress  ?  "  she  replied,  "  There  is  too  much  suffering 
in  this  world." 

For  forty-six  years   Margaret  had   carried  on 


MARGARET.  125 

these  labors  of  love  in  New  Orleans,  making 
her  money  with  great  industry  and  sagacity,  to 
spend  it  for  the  poor  and  afflicted.  But  the  time 
drew  near  for  her  to  leave  her  work  to  other  hands. 
Sickness  came.  The  women  of  wealth  and  fashion 
made  the  sick  bed  as  easy  to  lie  upon  as  possible. 
To  a  lady  who  said,  "  I  am  sorry  to  see  you  ill," 
Margaret  answered,  "  Oh !  no,  the  Lord  sometimes 
has  to  lay  his  finger  on  me  to  let  me  know  I  am 
mortal  and  don't  belong  to  myself —  but  to  Him." 
On  February  9, 1882,  the  end  came  of  this  noble 
life.  And  then  thousands,  the  poor  and  the  rich, 
the  City  Government  and  New  Orleans'  merchants 
and  bankers,  gathered  at  the  funeral  to  do  Mar- 
garet honor.  The  services  were  conducted  by  the 
Archbishop  of  the  Diocese.  Then  followed  in 
carriages,  after  the  pall-bearers  as  the  beloved 
Margaret  was  borne  to  the  grave,  the  children  of 
eleven  orphan  asylums,  white  and  black,  Protes- 
tant and  Catholic.  Many  of  the  fire  companies 
of  the  city  were  present,  especially  "  Mississippi 
Number  Two,"  of  which  she  was  an  honorary 
member.  Great  crowds  lined  the  streets,  and  all 


126  MARGARET. 

men  took  off  their  hats  reverently,  as  the  proces- 
sion moved  by. 

The  following  Sabbath,  sermons  upon  Mar- 
garet's character  and  life  were  preached  from 
many  pulpits  ;  upon  the  woman  so  poor  and  plain 
that  she  never  wore  a  silk  dress  or  a  kid  glove ;  so 
rich  that  she  gave  in  charities  six  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars,  the  fruit  of  her  own  labors. 

"  St.  Margaret  "  as  she  is  often  called,  lived  her 
life  in  grand  heights  and  breadths.  She  brought 
every  man  and  woman  who  knew  her  up  on  higher 
levels,  too,  for  a  moment's  glimpse  at  least.  Her 
monument,  built  by  the  city  she  blessed,  stands  now, 
in  place  of  her,  a  constant  reminder  that  one's  own 
children  are  not  the  only  children  in  the  world ; 
that  one's  home  is  not  the  only  home  into  which 
we  are  commanded  to  carry  sunshine  and  love  ; 
that  though  one  be  poor,  there  is  work  for  others 
to  do  ;  that  though  one  be  ignorant,  one  may  yet 
carry  heaven's  own  light  far  and  near. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL. 

THERE  stands  beside  me  as  I  write,  a  bouquet 
of  exquisite  flowers ;  pink  and  yellow  roses, 
lilies-of-the-valley,  red  and  white  carnation  pinks, 
and,  loveliest  of  all,  daisies.  I  have  just  brought 
them  from  a  large  and  well-kept  greenhouse,  on 
Jennings  Avenue,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  owned  and 
managed  by  a  young  woman  whose  taste  and  ability 
make  it  well  worthy  of  a  visit. 

The  daily  press  calls  this  greenhouse  "  the  finest, 
the  best-equipped  and  the  best-managed  floral  es- 
tablishment in  the  city."  The  business  office  as 
you  enter,  is  dainty  with  pictures  and  flowers ;  tall 
pampas  grass  stands  in  this  great  bay  window,  and 
in  the  reception  room  or  studio,  where  the  designs 
are  made,  palms  and  plants  in  flower,  grow  in  bow- 
ery profusion.  There  is  a  womanly  home-making 
127 


128  ELLA   GRANT  CAMPBELL. 

touch  here,  for  the  business  woman  has  hung 
among  the  blossoms  a  large  picture  of  her  daugh- 
ter, named  "  Pansy,"  a  pretty  little  creature  with 
blue  eyes  and  golden  hair,  who  holds  in  her  arms 
a  pussy-cat  nearly  as  large  as  herself. 

The  greenhouses  of  this  establishment  are  al- 
ways an  interesting  study.  Plants  just  set  out  from 
clippings  which  the  deft  ringers  of  Mrs.  Campbell 
pull  up  for  us  to  see  if  they  are  rooted,  and  then 
set  down  again  in  the  warm  earth,  seem  not  to 
mind  the  uplifting.  Here  are  carnations  in  bud ; 
great  beds  of  lilies-of-the-valley ;  trees  covered  with 
lemons,  masses  of  rich-colored  foliage  —  plants 
ready  for  the  summer  beds  in  the  parks. 

And  I  can  but  wonder  as  I  look  upon  this  beau- 
tiful and  successful  business,  and  see  how  refined 
and  how  sunny  and  happy  is  the  young  woman 
who  manages  it,  whom  I  have  known  for  years — 
I  can  but  wonder,  I  say,  that  more  women  do  not 
take  up  the  business  of  floriculture.  There  is  hard 
work  in  it,  as  in  every  other  calling  —  patience,  care, 
perhaps  even  the  creation  and  training  of  a  good 
market-demand  for  plants  and  flowers — but  tending 


ELLA    GRANT    CAMPBELL. 


ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL.  131 

upon  flowers  and  developing  them,  is  really  work 
so  dainty  and  pleasurable  that  it  seems  especially 
fitted  to  the  hands  of  those  women  who  shall  be 
willing  to  study  of  the  nature  and  habits  of  the 
flowering  and  decorative  plants. 

Mrs.  Campbell  can  best  tell  her  own  story  of 
effort  and  well-deserved  success : 

"  When  I  was  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  of  age 
my  father  met  with  reverses  which  rendered  him 
penniless.  I  was  obliged  to  do  something  to  help 
the  family  exchequer. 

"  After  trying  crochet  work,  delivering  butter  to 
father's  customers  in  his  new  business,  I  began  to 
feel  discouraged  and  long  for  talents  and  a  voca- 
tion. One  thing  I  heartily  loved  to  do,  and  that 
was  to  care  for  my  flowers.  At  this  time  I  read  of 
a  young  girl  who  was  enabled,  through  her  own 
exertions,  to  build  a  greenhouse.  The  tale  fasci- 
nated me.  Why  could  not  I  be  a  florist?  I  would ! 
My  vocation  was  found !  Every  fibre  of  my  being 
vibrated  in  harmony  with  the  thought. 

"  Fate  was  kind,  and  threw  just  the  opportunity 
desired  into  my  pathway.  Passing  out  Euclid  Av- 


132  ELLA   GRANT  CAMPBELL. 

enue  one  bright  afternoon  (eleven  years  ago  last 
fall),  I  noticed  that  Mr.  Jaynes  had  just  built  an 
expensive  office.  He  would  want  a  girl  to  take 
care  of  it!  I  entered,  found  Mr.  Jaynes;  asked 
him  breathlessly,  '  If  he  didn't  want  a  girl  to  take 
care  of  the  office,  learn  to  make  up  flowers,  and  do 
anything  that  she  could  to  make  herself  useful  ? ' 

"  '  Yes,'  he  needed  such  a  girl,  and  I  was  'just 
the  one  he  wanted.  The  active  way  I  jumped  in 
and  out  of  the  wagon  pleased  him.'  I  was  en- 
gaged to  keep  books,  wait  on  customers,  take  care 
of  the  office,  and  make  myself  'generally  useful.1 
I  had  been  in  my  position  three  or  four  months, 
when  father  met  with  an  accident  and  I  was  obliged 
to  go  home  and  help  take  care  of  him.  Mr.  Jaynes 
told  me  on  leaving  that  '  in  everything  I  was  sat- 
isfactory except  making  up.'  That  'my  work  was 
too  loose  and  scraggy,'  and  that  '  he  did  not  think 
I  would  amount  to  much  as  a  florist.' 

"I  went  home  very  much  discouraged.  But  I 
loved  flowers,  and  plants  and  flowers  I  must  have. 
A  gentleman  (a  true  lover  of  all  plant  forms),  Mr. 
Taintor,  deputy  post-master  of  Cleveland  for  twenty- 


ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL.  133 

five  years,  presented  me  with  some  small  plants 
and  choice  cuttings  from  his  private  greenhouse. 
And  at  different  times  mother  would  invest  from 
ten  to  twenty-five  cents  in  market  plants  for  me, 
until  by  the  next  fall  I  had  quite  a  nice  collection 
of  choice  plants.  I  secured  twenty-six  native  va- 
rieties of  hardy  ferns  from  the  woods,  which  I 
planted  on  an  old  table,  and  in  a  hanging  basket 
of  old  hoop-skirt  dipped  in  sealing-wax. 

"  This  fern  basket  and  table  were  my  especial 
pride  that  winter,  and  more  than  one  came  to  see 
my  collection.  Besides,  I  had  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  plants  in  pots  and  in  boxes,  old  butter 
crocks,  and  anything  that  could  be  utilized. 

"  Mother  allowed  me  to  have  our  front  room, 
which  has  two  east  windows  and  one  north  window, 
for  my  plants.  I  had  only  a  poor  apology  of  a  soft 
coal  stove  for  heating.  On  cold  nights  I  used  to 
move  all  the  plants  into  the  middle  of  the  room, 
and  wrap  them  up  in  newspapers  to  keep  them 
from  freezing  or  getting  chilled.  We  had  an  un- 
usually cold,  severe  winter.  I  would  sleep  on  the 
lounge  in  the  room  and  get  up  sometimes  three 


134  ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL. 

or  four  times  a  night  to  replenish  the  fire,  but  I 
succeeded  in  bringing  my  plants  safely  through, 
while  most  all  of  my  friends  had  theirs  destroyed. 
One  day  as  I  was  looking  through  Mr.  Taintor's 
garden,  I  came  across  a  pile  of  sash  and  other 
materials  pertaining  to  a  greenhouse  structure.  I 
asked  him  what  it  was  and  he  told  me  it  was  an 
old  greenhouse  he  had  taken  down  and  brought 
in  from  his  farm.  Turning  to  me,  he  said :  '  I'll 
sell  it  to  you  cheap  and  you  can  take  your  own 
time  in  paying  for  it.'  I  asked  him  '  How  much  ? ' 
more  for  conversation  than  with  any  idea  of  buy- 
ing it.  '  Well,'  said  he,  '  I'll  sell  it  to  you  for  ten 
dollars  and  you  can  pay  me  when  you  are  able,  and 
there  is  a  quantity  of  bricks  and  old  lumber  out  on 
the  farm  now  which  you  are  welcome  to.' 

"At  the  supper  table  that  evening  I  repeated 
what  Mr.  Taintor  had  said,  whereupon  my  younger 
brother  Bert  remarked,  '  I  tell  you  what,  Ella,  you 
take  it,  and  I  will  put  it  up  for  you,  if  you  will  only 
get  those  plants  out  of  the  house.'  (Bert  used  to 
be  called  on  to  help  me  move  the  plants.) 

"  The  next  day  we  went  to  the  farm  and  in- 


ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL.  135 

spected  the  debris  there,  came  home,  and  concluded 
to  try  it.  I  never  could  endure  anything  ugly,  and 
though  Bert  did  a  large  share  of  the  carpenter  work, 
and  I  set  over  half  the  glass  myself,  I  found  it  had 
cost  for  lumber,  glass,  nails  and  putty  a  trifle  over 
one  hundred  dollars.  This  included  the  labor  of 
a  carpenter  for  three  or  four  days  to  help  Bert.  My 
total  cash  assets  to  start  with  were  fifteen  cents. 
The  lumber,  glass  and  putty  I  obtained  on  credit. 
I  told  the  parties  from  whom  I  got  the  goods  that  I 
could  give  them  no  security  but  'my  word.'  But 
they  were  very  kind,  and  offered  to  give  me  what 
credit  I  needed. 

"  Well,  I  was  one  hundred  dollars  in  debt,  and 
no  heating  apparatus  in  either.  I  rigged  up,  with 
the  help  of  my  brother,  an  old  stove  that  had  been 
stored  in  the  barn,  in  one  corner  of  the  greenhouse, 
moved  my  plants  in  from  the  house,  went  to  Mr. 
Jaynes,  told  him  what  I  had  done,  and  got  credit 
for  plants. 

"  It  was  then  the  last  of  April  or  the  first  of  May. 
I  went  among  my  acquaintances,  told  them  I  had 
plants  for  sale,  and  solicited  orders  for  hanging 


136  ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL. 

baskets,  plants,  or  cut  flowers.  Every  day  father 
was  not  using  his  horses  I  would  take  one  and 
deliver  orders,  also  take  out  plants  and  sell  them. 
To  be  brief,  I  cleared  my  greenhouse  of  debt  by 
my  spring  work.  I  did  all  the  work  myself  with 
occasional  assistance  from  my  brother.  That  fall 
we  put  in  a  flue  and  furnace.  My  first  greenhouse 
was  eleven  by  eighteen  feet,  with  glass  on  sides 
and  roof,  and  adjoining  the  house.  I  had  tried 
to  do  all  the  work  well,  that  was  given  me  to  do, 
but  I  was  a  struggling  girl,  and  I  had  a  hard 
time  of  it.  When  I  first  thought  of  gaining  my 
living  as  a  florist,  I  received  a  great  deal  of  dis- 
couragement from  father,  he  prophesying  that  '  I 
would  not  make  a  two-cent  hat  or  six-cent  calico 
dress.'  He  has  since  changed  his  opinion. 

"  The  next  spring  my  greenhouses  were  full  of 
fair  market  plants.  I  strove  to  grow  only  choice 
varieties,  or  something  that  was  not  grown  in  pro- 
fusion by  the  other  florists ;  I  bought  plants  in 
quantity  from  Mr.  Jaynes  and  others,  restocking 
my  houses  several  times.  From  the  first  I  have 
always  believed  in  pushing  business,  and  I  went 


ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL.  137 

after  my  orders,  instead  of  waiting  for  them  to 
come  to  me ;  though  I  always  endeavored  to  keep 
within  the  limits  of  good  taste  in  this  direction. 
That  fall  I  determined  to  make  a  bold  stroke.  I 
would  build  a  greenhouse  large  enough  to  grow 
my  own  cut  flowers.  My  brother,  who  had  been 
away,  came  home  at  this  time,  and  we  built  a  green- 
house twenty-two  by  fifty-five,  with  a  shed  twelve 
by  twenty-two  at  the  end,  where  our  furnace  was 
located.  This  cost  about  three  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars.  It  took  two  years  to  pay  for  it.  We  also 
purchased  a  horse.  It  was  during  these  two  years 
that  I  commenced  to  push  'my  floral  design' 
work. 

"  I  was  craving  for  a  recognition  from  the  other 
florists,  and  I  could  not  see  any  better  way  than 
to  meet  them  on  their  own  ground,  on  their  own 
level.  I  have  always  been  most  anxious  that  my 
work  should  be  judged  with  man's  work,  or  in  other 
words,  on  its  own  merits.  My  first  exhibition  was 
at  the  State  Fair  at  Columbus. 

"I  arrived  before  any  of  my  competitors,  and 
found  the  flowers  pretty  badly  shaken  up.  My 


138  ELLA  GRANT  CAMPBELL. 

largest  piece,  a  combination  of  a  heart,  anchor  and 
Bible,  came  to  hand  turned  over  on  its  side. 

"  Bouquets  and  baskets  were  in  various  stages  of 
perfection  and  imperfection  and  decay.  I  looked 
at  my  carefully  prepared  work  and  felt  blue.  But 
I  picked  up  my  spirits  and  went  to  work.  I  had 
taken  the  precaution  of  bringing  loose  flowers  with 
me,  and  these  I  soon  utilized,  repairing  what  dam- 
age had  been  done  as  far  as  was  possible.  I  re- 
ceived many  courtesies  from  the  officials  and  was 
placed  on  the  awarding  committee  for  amateurs. 

"When  I  viewed  the  designs  brought  in  by  my 
competitors  I  began  to  be  sure  I  had  no  chance 
against  fresh  flowers,  and  such  excellent  work.  I 
was  agreeably  surprised  when  I  received  first  pre- 
mium on  hand  bouquets,  and  second  on  display. 
The  first  premium  was  also  given  to  a  woman,  Miss 
Maggie  Evans  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  who  has  a  great 
native  talent  in  floral  arrangement,  and  I  am  glad 
to  say  she  has  been  a  warm  personal  friend  from 
the  day  we  were  active  competitors  at  the  State 
Fair  at  Columbus. 

"  I  now  made  up  my  mind  that  if  I  was  to  sue- 


ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL.  139 

ceed  professionally,  I  must  get  thoroughly  well- 
known  and  identified  with  my  business.  Three 
or  four  large  wedding  orders  that  were  placed  in 
my  hands  at  this  time,  and  in  which  I  was  allowed 
to'use  my  judgment,  were  more  favorably  spoken 
of,  and  our  local  press  gave  me  many  compliments. 

"The  next  year  I  exhibited  at  the  Northern  Ohio 
Fair.  Here  I  knew  I  must  meet  with  the  sharp- 
est competition  with  our  old,  established  florists. 
It  proved  to  be  a  hot,  dry,  sultry  day,  with  just 
wind  enough  to  keep  the  dust  in  motion.  The  flow- 
ers and  designs  had  to  be  transported  over  seven 
miles  of  dry,  dusty  roadway  before  reaching  their 
destination  in  Floral  Hall.  On  arriving  at  the 
grounds  the  Superintendent  of  Cut  Flower  Hall 
met  me  and  said :  '  It's  no  use,  your  bringing  your 
flowers  here.  You  can't  compete  with  the  designs 
in  there,'  indicating  with  his  hand  the  building  oc- 
cupied by  the  cut  flower  department. 

"My  flowers  at  that  moment  arrived,  and  the 
florists  crowded  round  to  see  what  I  had  brought. 
I  could  hardly  suppress  my  emotions  when  I 
found  that,  owing  to  the  rough  pavements,  there 


140  ELLA  GRANT  CAMPBELL. 

were  places  where  the  flowers  were  shaken  out 
almost  as  large  as  a  man's  hat.  The  other  florists 
had  their  exhibits  entirely  in  place.  And  I  felt 
indeed  as  though  '  I  could  not  compete  with  the 
designs  in  there.'  It  was  then  five  o'clock,  and  I 
worked  until  dark,  when  my  brother  and  the  Su- 
perintendent took  turns  holding  lighted  matches 
for  me  to  see  by.  The  premiums  were  to  be 
awarded  the  next  morning ;  but  so  discouraged 
did  I  feel  that  I  could  not  be  induced  to  visit  the 
grounds.  (I  must  confess  to  a  good,  hard  cry.) 
But  mother  and  brother  went  out,  and  I  stayed  at 
home  and  worked,  and  worked,  and  chided  myself 
for  my  presumption  in  thinking  I  could  compete 
with  those  who  had  so  much  better  facilities  in 
skilled  labor  and  choice  flowers.  By  the  time 
they  had  returned  at  night,  I  had  worked  myself 
into  a  proper  submissive  mood  to  receive  the 
news  I  expected  them  to  bring.  Mother  came  in, 
and  sitting  down,  said,  'Well,'  in  answer  to  my 
inquiring  look,  and  drew  forth  from  her  pocket  a 
yellow  piece  of  card-board  and  handed  it  to  me. 
I  thought  she  was  teasing  me,  and  said .  '  Mother, 


ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL.  141 

how  can  you  ! '  I  still  thought  she  had  palmed  off 
a  bit  of  useless  card-board  on  me.  '  Read  it,'  said 
she,  and  through  my  tears  I  managed  to  read  — 
' ist premium'  Even  then  I  could  scarcely  be- 
lieve the  good  news.  '  Mother,'  said  I,  '  you  are 
unkind.'  '  Why,  it's  yours,  child.  'Twas  on  the 
table  design  when  we  got  there.' 

"  Can  you  imagine  my  feelings  ?  From  one  ex- 
treme I  rushed  to  the  other.  I  was  wild  with  joy. 
I  hugged  mother.  I  waltzed  around  the  room 
like  a  crazy  girl.  I  had  been  weighed  and  not 
been  found  wanting !  I  had  ideas !  I  had  come 
out  victorious  in  a  fair  and  square  test  with  those 
who  had  every  facility  at  their  command.  I  have 
passed  through  other  such  scenes  since,  but  the 
most  exciting  test  of  abilities  would  not  raise  me 
to  such  a  fever  of  delirium  as  that  first  public  ac- 
knowledgment of  my  success  in  competing  with 
our  old  and  well-established  florists. 

"  Not  the  least  pleasant  feature  of  the  exhibi- 
tion was,  that  on  the  following  day  some  of  the 
competing  florists  came  to  me  and  said  •  '  You 
have  won  it  fairly!  It  belongs  to  you  rightfully.' 


142  ELLA   GRANT  CAMPBELL. 

"All  our  papers  spoke  in  praise  of  my  efforts, 
and  it  was  the  means  of  giving  me  a  general  in- 
troduction to  the  public  as  a  commercial  florist. 

"  Soon  after  this  I  received  an  invitation  from 
Col.  Fogg,  editor  of  the  Herald,  to  go  to  Cincin- 
nati as  a  special  correspondent  to  write  up  the 
floral  features  of  the  Exposition  there.  Here  I 
was  in  my  element,  though  in  a  new  field.  A  flo- 
ral reporter !  It  opened  up  new  means  for  self- 
improvement  which  I  endeavored  to  improve  to 
the  uttermost.  I  believe  there  is  no  better  means 
of  self-education  than  to  write  on  live  issues  and 
new  ideas ;  to  catch  events  before  they  become 
old.  It  was  a  red  letter  day  when  I  saw  my  first 
letter  in  print,  and  by  carefully  noting  what  errors 
had  been  committed,  and  avoiding  them  after- 
ward, I  found  by  the  fourth  or  fifth  letter  that  they 
were  printed  verbatim. 

"  Two  years  afterward  my  brother  went  into 
business  with  me,  and  we  erected  a  larger '  forcing 
house.'  This  was  built  running  east  and  west 
with  a  long  slope  facing  the  south.  Peter  Hen- 
derson's Practical  Floricultrtre,  presented  by  Mr. 


ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL.  143 

Taintor,  was  our  text  book.  At  this  time  we  had 
the  pleasure  of  an  acquaintance  with  Mr.  John 
Thorpe,  now  so  well  known  as  the  president  of 
our  Society  of  American  Florists.  Mr.  Thorpe 
is  a  friend  to  struggling  young  florists :  such  we 
found  him,  always  willing  to  give  information,  and 
a  walking  encyclopaedia  of  useful  information  per- 
taining to  floral  subjects.  Our  new  house  was 
located  on  a  strip  of  land  we  bought  next  to 
father's,  and  is  the  property  we  are  now  occupying. 

"The  house  was  planted  to  Roses,  and  Bert 
had  unusual  success  with  them,  considering  that 
the  heating  was  done  by  flues.  In  fact  this  house 
at  the  present  writing  is  in  full  leaf  and  blossom, 
with  not  an  insect  or  a  speck  of  mildew  to  be 
found.  In  1881  my  brother  left  me  to  enter  busi- 
ness in  Chicago,  and  from  that  time  to  the  present 
I  have  given  my  personal  care  to  all  departments 
of  the  business.  In  1884  I  built  a  long-wished- 
for  addition,  our  new  office  and  greenhouse.  This 
last  was  built  for  tropical  and  decorative  plants. 

"  For  some  years  I  have  done  all  the  watering 
of  my  greenhouses,  believing  that  by  so  doing  I 


144  ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL. 

could  keep  track  of  all  the  little  things  that  go  to 
make  up  the  sum  total  of  success.  I  find,  also, 
that  watering  is  one  of  the  most  important  opera- 
tions connected  with  the  practical  running  of  a 
greenhouse.  To  give  or  withhold  water  from  dif- 
ferent plants  at  different  times  of  the  year  requires 
experience  and  the  nicest  judgment,  not  only  for 
different  plants,  but  also  for  the  different  stages 
of  the  same  plant. 

"  In  regard  to  the  future  of  woman  in  horti- 
culture, I  regard  it  as  bright.  Any  woman  can  do 
what  I  have  done,  and  better  if  she  has  capital 
and  experience.  For  I  have  worked  at  a  disad- 
vantage in  regard  to  both.  Last  Christmas  I  em- 
ployed eight  or  ten  girls  and  two  young  men. 

"  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  in  conclusion  the 
very  material  aid  and  help  I  have  received  from  a 
lady  who  has  been  my  true  friend.  When  finan- 
cial skies  looked  dark  or  some  very  much-needed 
improvement  needed  to  be  made,  she  has  given 
me  help  in  the  shape  of  loans,  at  six  per  cent  in- 
terest, with  the  privilege  of  paying  it  back  in  easy 
payments.  And  more  than  this,  she  has  placed 


ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL.  145 

liberal  orders  with  me,  and  so  gave  me  real  help 
—  the  privilege  of  earning  the  money  she  so 
kindly  loaned  me.  Would  that  more  would  loan 
from  their  plenty,  not  give,  to  struggling  begin- 
ners who  are  straining  every  nerve  to  make  a  suc- 
cess of  life." 

But  Mrs.  Campbell  has  not  referred  to  some 
of  her  signal  successes.  So  let  me  mention  one 
or  two.  For  instance  :  When  President  Garfield's 
body  was  brought  to  Cleveland  for  burial,  the 
streets  of  the  city  were,  of  course,  to  be  beautifully 
decorated  with  arches,  and  all  that  money  and  taste 
could  do  to  make  the  city  worthy  to  honor  its  great 
statesman,  was  to  be  thoroughly  done.  Mrs.  Camp- 
bell received  notice  on  Thursday  noon,  that  she 
had  been  designated  to  superintend  much  of  the 
floral  work.  She  began  at  eight  in  the  evening, 
with  a  force  of  picked  men  and  girls,  upon  whom 
she  could  rely,  and  slept  but  two  hours  each  night 
until  the  streets  were  made  ready  for  the  passing 
of  the  solemn  procession.  Her  designs  were  orig- 
inal and  elaborate,  yet  with  beautiful  breadth  of 
effect.  Each  arch  was  impressive,  all  the  com- 


146  ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL. 

memorative  lettering  distinct  and  symmetrical. 
The  verdict  of  the  press  was :  "  Every  piece  is  a 
work  of  art,  and  will  bear  the  closest  inspection." 
Quite  recently  she  has  bestowed  a  pleasure  upon 
the  public,  in  the  form  of  a  "  chrysanthemum  show," 
having  over  two  hundred  varieties  upon  exhibition. 
A  similar  exhibition  of  choice  roses  was  given  last 
year,  some  of  them  so  rare  and  so  beautiful  as  to 
bring  five  dollars  for  a  single  blossom.  At  the 
National  gathering  of  the  American  Horticultu- 
rists, in  1886,  Mrs.  Campbell  carried  off  many  of 
the  honors ;  she  received  the  first  premium  for  best 
floral  designs,  as  also  the  first  premium  for  the 
best  collection  of  cut  flowers;  the  second  prize 
for  the  best  collection  of  gladioli,  the  second  for 
dahlias,  the  second  for  geraniums,  and  the  second 
for  begonias  in  pots.  One  of  her  floral  designs, 
much  admired  there,  was  a  dainty  white  parasol 
of  carnations  with  a  lining  of  bright  scarlet  Lady 
Emma's.  The  exterior  was  decorated  with  a  dra- 
pery of  Le  France  roses,  and  lilies  with  delicate 
ferns,  the  whole  supported  by  a  standard  of  tropi- 
cal ferns. 


ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL.  147 

Mrs.  Campbell  is  celebrated  for  her  decorations 
for  fine  weddings ;  she  is  not  only  an  artistic  origi- 
nator, but  is  also  a  constant  student,  experiment- 
ing and  combining,  and  also  has  developed  the 
business  tact  and  talent  to  "win  trade"  which  she 
holds  by  her  genuine  courtesy  and  candor,  and  her 
painstaking  to  give  satisfaction.  No  order  how- 
ever small  misses  of  her  personal  attention. 

These  are  the  business-rules  framed  and  hung  in 
her  office : 

Advertise  thoroughly. 

Carry  the  best  stock. 

Sell  at  small  profits. 

Improve  every  opportunity  to  increase  trade. 

Her  books  are  kept  with  system.  She  is  quick 
to  act,  and  accommodates  herself  to  the  taste  and 
wishes  and  need  of  her  smallest  customer. 

Mrs.  Campbell  has  made  a  specialty  of  carpet- 
beds  in  lawns,  and  many  beautiful  grounds  in 
Cleveland  and  other  cities  are  indebted  to  her 
originality  in  designs  for  their  attractions. 

And  yet  this  successful  florist,  this  thorough 
business-woman,  is  scarcely  yet  out  of  her  girlhood, 


148  ELLA   GRANT   CAMPBELL. 

a  slight,  fragile  creature.  Other  women,  too,  are 
succeeding  as  florists. 

Mrs.  Harris  Jaynes,  the  widow  of  the  florist  who 
first  employed  Mrs.  Campbell,  has,  since  her  hus- 
band's death,  managed  the  business  with  the  aid 
of  her  two  sons.  She  has  seven  greenhouses,  with 
fifty  thousand  feet  of  glass,  cultivates  nine  acres 
of  grasses  and  flowers,  and  employs  nearly  a  dozen 
persons.  Miss  Bristol  of  Topeka,  Kans.,  Mrs. 
Packard  of  Quincy,  Mass.,  Mrs.  Shuster  of  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y.,  and  many  others  are  known  as  prosper- 
ous florists.  Miss  Merriman  of  Beacon  street, 
Boston,  has  for  seven  years  been  a  successful 
flower-grower  and  flower-trader,  the  first  woman 
to  engage  in  this  business  in  that  city,  I  believe. 
The  oldest  florists  in  Boston  said,  "  We  will  give 
her  six  months  to  go  under ; "  but  their  predic- 
tions have  failed.  She  admits  that  the  working 
hours  are  long,  the  cares  of  the  business  many, 
but  she  has  no  thought  of  abandoning  it. 

Why  is  not  this  an  ideal  industry  for  women  ? 
The  more  flower-growing  the  better,  the  more 
lovely  our  homes,  the  more  refined  our  nation. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

RACHEL   LITTLER    BODLEY. 

THE  roll  of  Successful  Women  would  not  be 
complete  without  the  name  of  Prof.  Rachel 
Littler  Bodley,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  Dean  of  the  Woman's 
Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania.  She  has  not 
reached  the  position  she  occupies  without  meeting 
difficulties  and  surmounting  obstacles;  her  story 
is  a  record  of  heroic  efforts,  untiring  industry,  un- 
selfish devotion. 

Prof.  Bodley  was  born  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  Her 
paternal  ancestry  was  Scotch-Irish,  the  American 
progenitor,  Thomas  Bodley,  having  emigrated  from 
the  north  of  Ireland  in  the  first  quarter  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  settled  in  what  is  now 
Montgomery  County,  Pennsylvania.  There  he 
married  Mrs.  Eliza  Knox  (nee  Mclntosh)  from 
Edinburgh,  Scotland;  the  eleventh  president  of 
149 


150  RACHEL    LITTLER    BODLEY. 

the  United  States  was  a  direct  descendant  of  this 
widow.  William,  the  eldest  son  of  Thomas  and 
Eliza  Bodley,  was  the  great-grandfather  of  Prof. 
Bodley ;  he  was  a  soldier  in  the  Continental  army, 
and  during  the  terrible  winter  of  1777-78  was  with 
General  Washington  at  Valley  Forge,  where  he 
ranked  as  Major;  he  contracted  consumption  from 
exposure  in  the  service,  and  died  in  1780.  His 
grave,  with  its  gray  lichened  headstone  in  a  state 
of  excellent  preservation,  is  in  the  churchyard  of 
Providence  Meeting  House  not  far  from  Norris- 
town,  Pa.  Standing  by  its  side  the  eye  takes  in  a 
far-reaching  landscape  of  marvellous  beauty,  the 
distant  hills  about  Valley  Forge  being  distinctly 
visible. 

The  maternal  ancestor  was  John  Talbott,  an  Eng- 
lish Friend  who  emigrated  to  the  Colony  of  Vir- 
ginia and  was  the  progenitor  of  a  large  family  who 
through  two  succeeding  centuries  have  honored 
their  name  and  lineage.  Rebecca  Wilson  Talbott 
and  Anthony  Richard  Bodley,  the  parents  of 
Rachel  Littler  Bodley,  went  to  Ohio  early  in  the 
present  century.  Rebecca,  the  Quakeress,  the 


DR.    RACHKL    LITTLER    HODLEY. 


RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY.  153 

only  daughter  of  Samuel  and  Rachel  Littler  Tal- 
bott,  crossed  the  Alleghany  Mountains  in  an  emi- 
grant wagon,  being  one  of  a  family  of  five  young 
children  who  were  taken  by  their  parents  from  the 
old  home  near  Winchester,  Virginia,  to  the  far  West 
which  in  1806  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Mononga- 
hela  in  Western  Pennslyvania.  A  few  years  later, 
the  Virginia  emigrants  moved  into  the  adjoining 
State  and  eventually  the  whole  family  embarked  in 
an  "  ark  "  constructed  by  the  eldest  son,  and  de- 
scended the  Ohio  River,  landing  at  the  town  of 
Cincinnati  in  May,  1817. 

Anthony  Bodley  at  twenty-one  set  out  from 
Montgomery  County,  Penn.,  to  seek  his  fortune, 
and  crossed  the  mountains  on  foot ;  from  Pittsburg 
he  descended  the  river  in  a  canoe  or  skiff,  reach- 
ing Cincinnati  about  the  same  time  as  the  Talbott 
family. 

Five  children  were  born  to  Anthony  and  Rebecca 
Bodley,  of  whom  Rachel  was  the  elder  daughter 
and  the  third  child.  The  education  and  training 
of  the  children  devolved  upon  the  mother.  This 
pious  and  devoted  woman  dedicated  her  little 


1 54  RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY. 

daughter  to  the  Lord,  and  chiefly  to  her  influence 
and  teaching  is  due  the  strength  and  excellence  of 
character  exemplified  in  her  child.  The  daughter 
never  forgot  the  consecration,  and  her  life  has  been 
one  of  steadfast  obedience  to  her  mother's  injunc- 
tion written  in  a  birthday  album  :  "  Make  every- 
thing subservient  to  the  high  aim  of  pleasing  the 
great  I  AM,  lean  on  Him,  lean  on  no  earthly  stay  : 
your  strength,  your  sufficiency  is  in  Jesus  alone." 

Mrs.  Bodley  opened  a  private  school  in  Cincin- 
nati, and  in  this  school  Rachel  was  a  pupil  until 
her  twelfth  year.  Both  mother  and  daughter  be- 
lieved that  the  best  education  and  the  broadest  cul- 
ture were  means  to  the  greatest  usefulness ;  hence 
even  the  fragments  of  time  were  improved  to  secure 
a  liberal  education,  and  to  this  end  Rachel  entered 
the  Wesleyan  Female  College  of  Cincinnati  in 
1844.  This  institution,  the  first  chartered  college 
for  women  in  the  United  States,  and  hence,  in  the 
world,  was  founded  in  1842  for  the  purpose  of  giv- 
ing to  women  a  higher  education  than  the  existing 
schools  and  seminaries  afforded.  This  college 
which,  for  the  first  seventeen  years  of  its  history, 


RACHEL    LITTLER    BODLEY.  155 

was  under  the  presidency  of  Rev.  P.  B.  Wilber, 
has  enriched  society  with  women  of  a  noble  type. 
While  the  intellect  was  under  training,  especial 
attention  was  given  to  the  education  of  the  moral 
powers.  The  conscience  was  carefully  cultivated, 
hence  its  graduates  have  been  to  a  remarkable  de- 
gree the  foremost  Christian  laborers  in  church  and 
charitable  work  in  their  respective  communities. 

Here,  in  her  school-course  of  five  years,  every- 
thing required  of  Rachel  Bodley  was  well  done, 
and  in  all  that  she  attempted  the  highest  standard 
was  reached;  especially  was  it  soon  evident  in  her 
duties  pertaining  to  the  college  literary  society  that 
she  was  endowed  with  the  "gift  of  writing."  It 
is  not  always  that  persons  of  the  finest  mental 
powers  and  of  studious  habits  are  the  most  genial 
companions ;  but  in  the  case  of  Miss  Bodley,  to 
her  literary  taste  and  skill  was  added  a  warm  heart 
overflowing  with  affection  and  sympathy,  prompt- 
ing her  to  deeds  which  endeared  her  then  and  for- 
ever to  the  discouraged  class-mate  and  the  home- 
sick schoolgirl. 

Immediately  after  graduation  in  1849,  Miss  Bod- 


156  RACHEL   LITTLER    BODLEY. 

ley  was  appointed  to  an  assistant  teacher's  place 
in  the  faculty  of  her  Alma  Mater,  and  here  she 
remained  ascending  in  grade,  till  1860,  when  she 
was  Preceptress  in  the  Higher  Collegiate  studies. 
To  say  she  was  a  good  teacher  were  too  tame  and 
spiritless  an  expression  to  use  in  referring  to  one 
so  thoroughly  prepared,  so  in  love  with  her  work. 
Her  rare  power  in  winning  the  hearts  of  her 
pupils,  gave  her  unusual  influence  over  their  minds, 
and  thus  mutually  loving  and  being  loved,  they 
taught  and  learned  with  an  enthusiasm  which 
robbed  study  of  its  tedium,  begat  a  hunger  and 
thirst  for  knowledge,  and  made  the  school-room  a 
place  of  delight.  Not  content  with  explaining  the 
lessons  of  the  text-books,  she  felt  responsible  for 
the  moral  development  of  her  pupils,  and  made 
time  to  close  each  week's  duties  with  special  reli- 
gious instruction.  It  is  the  testimony  of  many  of 
her  pupils  of  those  early  years  that  these  lessons 
given  in  such  an  unobtrusive  manner  made  a  last- 
ing impression,  and  that  the  example  of  Christian 
character  before  them  daily  became  their  highest 
model  in  maturer  years. 


RACHEL   LITTLER    BODLEY.  157 

Notwithstanding  her  success  through  these 
eleven  years  as  a  teacher,  Rachel  Bodley  was  not 
satisfied  with  her  attainments.  Hence  to  gratify 
a  worthy  ambition  and  to  qualify  herself  for  still 
greater  usefulness,  she  left  home  in  the  autumn  of 
1860  for  Philadelphia  to  become  a  special  student 
in  advanced  chemistry  and  physics  in  the  Poly- 
technic College  of  Pennsylvania,  at  that  time  the 
leading  institution  of  the  country  for  instruction  in 
the  applied  sciences ;  and  of  practical  anatomy  and 
physiology  in  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of 
Pennsylvania.  After  a  year  of  close  application 
and  of  rich  acquirement,  she  returned  home,  and 
in  February,  1862,  was  appointed  Professor  of 
Natural  Sciences  in  the  Cincinnati  Female  Semi- 
nary, which  position  she  occupied  three  years. 

During  this  time  she  made  a  valuable  contribu- 
tion to  local  botanical  science  in  the  shape  of  a 
catalogue  of  plants.  Joseph  Clark,  a  native  of 
Scotland,  but  for  the  last  thirty-five  years  of  his 
life  a  resident  of  Cincinnati,  died  in  1858;  he  was 
a  lover  of  nature  and  an  indefatigable  collector  of 
specimens  of  natural  history.  After  his  death  his 


158  RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY. 

extensive  collections  came  into  the  Cincinnati  Fe- 
male Seminary.  We  will  let  Prof.  Bodley  tell  what 
she  did  in  an  extract  from  the  preface  of  this  at- 
tractive catalogue  of  forty-eight  pages  : 

When  I  entered  the  seminary  in  1862,  I  found  chaos 
reigning  in  the  domain  of  science.  In  the  midst  of  abound- 
ing wealth  famine  was  inevitable  through  lack  of  classifica- 
tion. With  a  resolute  will  I  entered  single-handed  upon  the 
Herculean  task  of  making  these  treasures  available  to  sci- 
ence. No  attempt  at  classification  according  to  the  natural 
system  had  been  made.  The  plants  for  the  most  part  had 
been  named,  but  named  according  to  the  nomenclature  of 
thirty  years  ago.  Hence  the  necessity  for  a  careful  study 
of  synonyms  and  a  critical  and  laborious  examination  of  in- 
dividual specimens  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  the  numer- 
ous nomenclatural  changes  which  the  advance  of  science 
rendered  necessary. 

The  American  plants  have  been  classified  according  to  the 
natural  system  as  published  by  Prof.  Gray  in  his  "  Manual 
of  the  Botany  of  the  Northern  United  States,"  revised  edi- 
tion 1857,  and  by  Dr.  Chapman  in  his  "  Flora  of  the  South- 
ern United  States,  1860."  There  were  also  foreign  plants, 
British  ferns  and  mosses,  packages  of  plants  from  New  Zea- 
land. In  the  absence  of  any  reliable  manual  which  embraced 
the  countries  represented  by  these  plants  they  were  clas- 
sified as  far  as  orders  and  genera  with  Lindley's  Vegetable 
Kingdom  as  my  guide.  The  mass  was  carefully  opened,  the 
plants  identified  and  finally  arranged  in  labelled  sheets  of 
uniform  size,  and  the  whole  placed  in  a  convenient  herba- 


RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY.  159 

rium  case,  where  it  is  now  in  complete  readiness  for  refer- 
ence and  study.  During  these  years  I  have  labored  patiently 
and  faithfully  upon  it  in  my  leisure  hours,  and  it  is  only 
now  in  my  fourth  summer  vacation  that  I  have  finished  the 
classification  and  arrangement  of  this  herbarium.  I  have 
found  my  work  womanly,  secluded,  ennobling ;  and  I  submit 
to  educated  women  of  this  vicinity  whether,  since  these  pur- 
suits fail  through  lack  of  patronage,  they  may  not  enter  upon 
them,  and,  as  they  find  opportunity,  become  workers  in, 
or  patronesses  of  science.  Only  the  will  is  lacking ;  culti- 
vated talent,  wealth,  and  opportunity  are  abundant. 

The  preparation  of  this  catalogue  received  the 
commendation  of  so  experienced  and  critical  a 
judge  as  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  the  highest  authority  upon 
botany  in  the  United  States.  "  Your  attempt  is 
very  satisfactory  indeed,"  kindly  wrote  the  great 
botanist,  "  and  much  I  know  must  have  depended 
upon  your  good  taste  and  knowledge.  I  see  but 
very  few  misprints,  and  the  arrangement  is  wholly 
pleasing  to  the  eye." 

In  1865,  Rachel  Bodley  was  called  to  the  chair 
of  chemistry  and  toxicology,  in  the  Woman's  Medi- 
cal College  of  Pennsylvania.  She  accepted  and 
thus  became  the  first  woman-professor  of  chemistry 
on  record  ;  and  here,  after  more  than  twenty  years 


l6o  RACHEL   LITTLER    BODLEY. 

of  arduous  labor,  she  still  toils  inspiring  students, 
serving  humanity,  and  honoring  God.  In  January, 
1847,  she  was  elected  Dean  of  the  Faculty,  since 
which  time  she  has  given  herself,  time,  talents,  and 
strength  wholly  to  the  college,  promoting  its  inter- 
ests, striving  in  every  way  to  benefit  and  elevate 
her  sex,  and  to  secure  for  woman  and  her  work 
the  recognition  and  respect  which  they  deserve. 

The  industry  whose  results  have  been  partially 
shown,  has  been  truly  marvelous.  Although  Prof. 
Bodley  graduated,  she  has  never  finished  her 
course  of  study.  While  teaching  in  Cincinnati 
she  was  still  pursuing  her  studies  under  the  best 
masters.  Her  college  course  had  been  a  thorough 
classical  one,  including  also  mathematics  and  two 
modern  languages,  but  throughout  the  eleven  years 
this  mental  acquirement  was  systematically  and 
statedly  supplemented  with  private  lessons  in 
higher  mathematics,  music,  French,  German,  elo- 
cution, drawing,  microscopy  and  phonography. 
These  subjects  alternated  with  each  other  usually 
only  one  subject  being  pursued  at  a  time  ;  when 
these  self-imposed  tasks  were  challenged  by  her 


RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY.  l6l 

friends,  the  young  teacher  was  accustomed  to  de- 
fend them  by  saying  that  they  kept  her  "out 
of  the  ruts "  and  imparted  good  quality  to  her 
own  teaching.  From  this  extended  and  critical 
study  of  standard  French  and  German  authors, 
the  transition  to  text-books  was  easy  and  natural 
when  the  time  came  for  her  to  devote  herself  to 
natural  science.  Through  sight-reading  she  has 
without  effort  been  able  to  keep  abreast  with  the 
latest  phases  of  scientific  thought  on  the  continent, 
without  the  marring  and  the  delay  incident  to  pub- 
lished translations.  After  Prof.  Bodley  had  taken 
up  her  residence  in  an  Eastern  city  the  same  habit 
of  daily  application  enabled  her  to  pursue  the 
regular  course  of  medical  study  begun  in  i'86o, 
and  to  complete  it  while  fulfilling  the  duties  of 
her  chair  in  lecture  room  and  in  laboratory. 

Her  summer  vacations  constitute  the  only  leisure 
the  laborious  life  of  Prof.  Bodley  has  ever  per- 
mitted. The  vacation  trip  was  carefully  planned 
months  before  it  occurred  and  usually  compre- 
hended long  journeys,  never  hotel  residence  except 
during  brief  pauses  for  needful  rest.  In  this  way 


162  RACHEL    LITTLER    BODLEY. 

throughout  the  decades,  this  American  woman, 
loyal  in  her  recreations  as  in  her  labors,  has  visited 
every  typical  locality  whose  natural  scenery  or  his- 
toric associations  invite  attention,  from  the  Great 
Lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  from  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Beginning  as  a  little  girl  with  the  encircling 
hills  of  the  beautiful  queen  city  of  her  birth,  which 
hid  from  her  view  the  great  world  which  she  longed 
to  explore,  her  earliest  journey  beyond  them  was 
made  one  summer  day  when  the  wise  mother  trans- 
ported her  entire  little  brood  of  four,  on  the  won- 
derful railway  (the  Little  Miami)  then  in  process  of 
construction  and  which  terminated  in  the  fields 
about  thirty  miles  from  Cincinnati ;  the  little  party 
pushed  on  by  stage  to  Green  County,  their  desti- 
nation being  the  "  cliffs  of  the  Little  Miami  River." 
This  for  the  children  was  their  first  "  scenery " 
and  the  happy  day  spent  in  the  miniature  canyon 
was  never  forgotten  ;  of  the  "  four  "  it  was  Rachel's 
soul  that  was  filled  with  reverent  awe  and  speech- 
less delight.  The  impending  rocks,  the  unfamil- 
iar, sombre  evergreens  and  the  falling  waters  re- 


RACHEL   LITTLER    BODLEY.  163 

appeared  in  her  day-dreams  again  and  again  long 
after  she  had  returned  to  her  school  tasks.  The 
next  great  revelation  was  Niagara  some  years 
later,  the  next  Mammoth  Cave,  the  next  the  Great 
Lakes,  the  tour  planned  to  end  at  the  head  of  Lake 
Superior  as  to  the  steamer,  and  the  crossing  to 
the  head  waters  of  the  Mississippi  River  to  be 
made  by  canoe  and  afoot.  Her  elder  brother  was 
her  congenial  travelling  companion  and  the  at- 
tempt to  carry  out  the  programme  was  resolute, 
but  failed  finally,  through  inability  to  obtain  re- 
liable guides.  The  attempt  was  renewed  two 
years  later  when  with  her  younger  brother  as  fel- 
low traveller,  the  long  trip  by  steamer  from  Cin- 
cinnati to  St.  Paul  was  accomplished  at  the  "  Fuller 
House "  and  the  party  was  booked  for  Lake 
Superior ;  the  first  stage  of  the  land  journey  was 
actually  made,  but  the  arrival  of  a  party  of  half- 
breeds  at  the  first  station  who  had  just  come  over 
the  route  to  be  taken,  compelled  the  enthusiastic 
tourists  to  desist  from  their  purpose.  These  trap- 
pers reported  the  streams  and  little  lakes  over- 
flowing from  recent  rains  and  the  numerous  port- 


164  RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY. 

ages  utterly  unsafe  to  be  undertaken  by  a  lady. 
Sixteen  years  later  the  same  lady,  this  time  alone; 
entered  the  harbor  of  Duluth  on  a  magnificent 
steamer  and,  after  a  late  breakfast  in  a  first-class 
hotel,  began  the  ascent  of  the  St.  Louis  River 
seated  in  a  luxurious  railway  car;  onward  sped 
the  train,  the  names  of  stations  as  gleaned  from 
railway  guide  recalling  the  careful  study  of  the 
portage  route,  which  was  to  have  consumed  many 
days.  In  the  late  afternoon  of  the  glorious  mid- 
summer day  the  train  rolled  into  the  stately  city  of 
St.  Paul  and  the  dream  of  years  was  fulfilled ! 
The  transit  from  the  greatest  lake  to  the  greatest 
river  of  the  continent  had  been  made,  but  the 
glamour  was  gone,  the  steam  passage  had  proved 
destitute  of  poetic  elements,  the  dear  brothers  were 
both  dead. 

Many  of  the  later  recreation  journeys  were  taken 
quite  alone  as  a  friend  rarely  could  be  found  able 
to  undergo  the  fatigue  incident  to  extended  and 
often  laborious  routes.  Botany  here  came  in  good 
stead,  the  traveller  finding  in  the  collection  and 
field  study  of  plants  abundant  companionship ;  in 


RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY.  165 

witness  of  this,  the  botanical  trunk  manufactured 
to  order  and  containing  specimen-sheets  and  dry- 
ing paper  and  boards  in  abundance,  together  with 
ready-cut  labels  and  the  manuals  of  Gray  and  of 
Chapman,  always  constituted  part  of  the  baggage 
of  the  tourist.  In  this  silent  and  congenial  com- 
panionship within  the  last  twenty  years,  the  Venus' 
Fly-trap  has  been  studied  and  gathered  in  the 
sandy  bogs  in  the  vicinity  of  Wilmington,  North 
Carolina ;  the  lily  of  the  valley  on  the  high  moun- 
tains of  Virginia ;  the  graceful  white  racemes  of 
the  snowdrop-tree  on  the  mountain  road  leading  to 
Hawk's  Nest  which  overhang  New  River  in  West 
Virginia  ;  the  crimson  panicles  of  the  dwarf  horse- 
chestnut  on  the  shore  of  Mobile  Bay ;  the  Alpine 
sandwort  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Monadnock ; 
in  the  hem  of  the  vast  wilderness  on  the  north 
shore  of  Lake  Superior,  the  dainty  and  fragrant 
Linnaea  Borealis ;  on  the  western  plains  the  sage- 
bush  ;  in  the  valley  of  the  Arkansas,  the  regal 
blossoms  of  the  cactuses ;  and  on  the  mountain 
sides  in  Colorado  in  the  solemn  presence  of  the 
snow-crowned  peaks,  the  brilliant  Alpine  flora 


166  RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY. 

which  in  August  glorifies  the  scanty  soil  above 
timber  line.  As  will  be  readily  surmised,  Prof. 
Bodley  is  an  ardent  lover  of  nature,  not  its  wor- 
shiper, for  to  her  "  nature  is  but  the  name  of  an 
effect,  whose  cause  is  God."  And  at  His  feet  she 
keeps  herself  and  all  her  gifts  in  perpetual  offering. 

Previous  to  her  election  as  Dean,  Prof.  Bodley 
accepted  invitations  to  teach  or  lecture  during 
time  which  was  unoccupied  by  the  duties  of  her 
professorship  ;  she  was  thus  occupied  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1866  at  Flushing,  Long  Island  ;  1867  and 
1868,  in  Philadelphia;  in  the  spring  of  1869  she 
delivered  a  course  of  lectures  in  Cincinnati  to 
which  leading  physicians  and  teachers  listened 
with  interest  and  profit.  Five  seasons,  1870-1874 
inclusive,  she  gave  instruction  in  Rowland  school, 
Cayuga  Lake,  N.  Y. 

Prof.  Bodley  came  to  the  deanship  when  a  new 
college  building  was  in  progress,  the  corner  stone 
of  which  was  laid  in  1874,  and  possession  taken  in 
March,  1875.  The  number  of  students  then  in  at- 
tendance was  seventy  ;  during  the  present  annual 
session  (1886-87)  tn^s  number  is  one  hundred 


RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY.  167 

and  fifty-five.  The  duties  of  the  new  position  added 
to  those  of  her  chair  left  no  time  for  stated  out- 
side work,  her  official  letters  alone  gradually  in- 
creasing to  a  correspondence  which  now  encircles 
the  globe  and  continues  throughout  the  year.  By 
means  of  these  letters  she  has  wielded  a  world 
wide  influence  for  good  in  addition  to  what  she 
has  achieved  by  personal  contact.  In  recent 
years  one  of  the  most  notable  events  connected 
with  Dean  Bodley's  work  has  been  the  delivery  of 
an  address  to  the  graduates  at  the  Commencement 
in  March,  1881,  entitled  "The  College  Story." 
No  less  distinguished  an  authority  than  Mr. 
Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson  in  the  Woman's 
fournal  characterized  this  address  as  "  the  first 
really  good  and  careful  collection  of  facts  I  have 
ever  seen  bearing  on  the  professional  life  of 
woman.  It  relates  to  the  medical  profession,  the 
only  one  yet  open  to  women  on  a  sufficiently  large 
scale  to  make  facts  of  much  value,  except  the  pro- 
fession of  teaching  which  involves  in  some  re- 
spects a  different  set  of  conditions,  and  need  not 
now  be  considered.  But  medical  practice  is  essen- 


1 68  RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY. 

tially  professional  life,  and  Dr.  Rachel  L.  Bodley, 
Dean  of  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, has  lately  instituted,  among  the  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy-six  graduates,  a  series  of  inqui- 
ries bearing  on  their  whole  public  life  for  the  thirty 
years  since  the  first  class  graduated.  The  care 
with  which  the  facts  were  obtained,  and  the  clear- 
ness with  which  they  are  stated,  give  them  a  value 
almost  unique." 

Among  the  thirty-three  graduates  of  the  class  of 
1886  was  a  Brahmin  lady  of  high  caste  from  India. 
Already  well  educated  when  she  came  she  pursued 
the  course  of  medical  study  for  three  years.  The 
previous  history  of  Dr.  Anandibai  Joshee,  her  com- 
ing to  America,  her  progress  and  success,  had  been 
a  perpetual  source  of  interest  to  those  acquainted 
with  her  presence  in  the  college.  In  anticipation 
of  the  memorable  event  of  the  graduation  of  this 
Brahmin  lady,  Dean  Bodley  extended  an  invitation 
to  her  distinguished  kinswoman  then  in  England, 
Pundita  Ramabai  Sarasvati,  scholar,  lecturer  and 
poet  of  India,  to  visit  Philadelphia  as  her  guest. 
The  Pundita  came,  accompanied  by  her  little  daugh- 


RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY.  169 

ter  of  five  years,  and  in  the  American  Academy  of 
Music  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  audience  she  wit- 
nessed on  Commencement  Day  with  full  heart,  the 
conferring  of  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine 
upon  her  Hindu  sister.  The  next  evening  a  formal 
reception  was  given  the  two  distinguished  ladies 
in  the  parlor  of  Association  Hall,  the  guests  being 
ladies  to  the  number  of  about  one  hundred  who  rep- 
resented every  department  of  woman's  work  in  Phil- 
adelphia, educational,  charitable,  philanthropic  and 
reformatory.  Dean  Bodley  received  the  guests  and 
introduced  them  to  the  Brahmin  ladies ;  later,  in 
the  hall  she  delivered  the  public  words  of  welcome 
to  the  Pundita  and  at  its  close  presented  the  re- 
nowned stranger  to  a  large  audience  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen  who  had  assembled  to  listen  while  she 
addressed  them  on  "  The  Women  of  India."  The 
events  of  the  two  days  engaged  public  attention  to 
an  unlooked-for  degree  and  in  response  to  this  fact 
and  that  the  interest  in  these  lovely  and  gifted 
representatives  of  India  might  be  fostered,  Dean 
Bodley,  early  in  April  following,  prepared  a  dainty 
little  pamphlet  entitled  "The  Welcome  to  Pun- 


1 70  RACHEL    LITTLER    BODLEY. 

dila  Ramabai,"  which  was  a  complete  record  of 
the  two  events  —  the  graduation  of  Dr.  Joshee, 
and  the  Welcome  at  Association  Hall.  This  little 
missive  was  widely  distributed  throughout  America 
and  Asia ;  its  compiler  taking  especial  pains  to  ob- 
tain from  the  Hindoo  ladies  the  postal  address  of 
their  relatives  and  friends  that  she  might  send  it 
by  mail  to  as  many  as  might  thus  be  reached  in 
India.  Contact  with  Western  civilization  on  the 
part  of  both,  and  Christian  baptism  as  regarded 
Ramabai,  had  marie  them  outcasts  among  their 
kindred,  but  it  was  desired  that  in  the  land  of 
their  birth  it  might  be  known  that  American  women 
cherished  and  loved  them.  Out  of  the  half-dozen 
copies  mailed  to  England,  one  was  proffered  for 
the  acceptance  of  Her  Majesty  the  Queen,  Empress 
of  India,  through  the  good  office  of  the  Legation 
of  the  United  States.  The  correspondence  of  the 
dean  was  enriched,  and  the  summer  rendered 
memorable  in  her  life  by  a  prompt  response  from 
Windsor  Castle,  written  by  the  Queen's  private 
secretary,  Sir  General  Henry  F.  Ponsonby.  By 
command  of  the  Queen  thanks  were  returned  for 


RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY.  171 

"having  sent  Her  Majesty  the  account  of  Dr. 
Joshee's  reception  in  the  Woman's  Medical  Col- 
lege of  Pennsylvania "  and  the  assurance  added, 
"  the  Queen  has  read  the  paper  with  much  interest." 

Queen  Victoria's  acknowledgment  is  of  no  small 
importance  to  the  development  of  woman's  medical 
work  in  India,  and  her  recognition  of  one  of  her 
Hindoo  subjects  by  her  medical  title  is  of  great  sig- 
nificance; all  who  in  India  are  working  for  the  ele- 
vation of  women  will  thank  the  dean  for  thus  calling 
the  attention  of  her  majesty  to  the  subject. 

Other  honors  beside  those  already  enumerated 
have  been  conferred  upon  Dr.  Bodley  in  acknowl- 
edgment of  her  contributions  to  literature  and  sci- 
ence and  indicating  the  esteem  in  which  her  work 
and  herself  as  a  woman  are  held.  In  1864  she  was 
elected  a  corresponding  member  of  the  State  His- 
torical Society  of  Wisconsin;  in  1871  elected  a 
member  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of 
Philadelphia.  In  1871,  the  degree  of  A.  M.  (Ar- 
tium  Magister)  was  conferred  by  her  Alma  Mater 
in  Cincinnati.  This  institution,  up  to  this  time, 
had  never  given  a  degree  to  any  of  its  alumnaa 


172  RACHEL   LITTLER   BODLEY. 

subsequent  to  the  A.  B.  at  graduation.  At  the 
College  Commencement  of  1871,  three  of  its 
alumnae  were  selected  upon  whom  to  confer  the 
first  honor  of  the  kind,  of  which  trio  Prof.  Bodley 
was  one. 

In  1879  tne  degree  of  M.  D.  was  conferred  by 
the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania. 
In  1873  she  was  elected  a  corresponding  member  of 
the  Cincinnati  Society  of  Natural  History;  in  1876, 
a  corresponding  member  of  the  New  York  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences,  and  during  the  same  year  a  mem- 
ber of  The  American  Chemical  Society  located  in 
New  York  City.  Early  in  1874  it  was  proposed 
in  the  columns  of  The  American  Chemist  to  cele- 
brate the  centennial  of  chemistry  in  August  of 
that  year,  this  date  being  chosen  in  honor  of  the 
discovery  of  oxygen  by  Dr.  Joseph  Priestley  in  Au- 
gust, 1774;  suggestions  as  to  methods  and  place 
were  solicited.  Prof.  Bodley  had  only  the  year 
previous,  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  grave  of  Dr. 
Priestley  at  Northumberland.  And  she  proposed 
that  the  Centennial  gathering  be  held  at  that 
place.  It  was  her  suggestion  which  determined 


RACHEL   LITTLER    BODLEY.  173 

the  location  of  the  meeting  and  accordingly  "a 
reunion  of  American  chemists  for  mutual  ex- 
change of  ideas  and  observations "  was  held, 
whose  proceedings  fill  a  volume  of  over  two  hun- 
dred pages,  and  at  which  Prof.  Bodley  was  elected 
first  Vice-President,  and  was  the  only  lady  upon 
whom  such  honor  was  conferred.  In  1880  she 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  venerable  Franklin 
Institute  of  Philadelphia  ;  in  the  winter  following 
she  was  invited  to  deliver  six  of  the  lectures  of  the 
regular  course  of  the  institute,  which  she  did,  tak- 
ing for  her  subject  "  Household  Chemistry." 

In  January,  1882,  she  was  chosen  a  member  of 
the  Public  Educational  Society  of  Philadelphia,  and 
in  February  was  elected  School  Director  of  the 
twenty-ninth  School  Section  of  Philadelphia,  in 
which  capacity  she  served  acceptably  for  three 
years.  In  1883  she  was  appointed  one  of  seven 
women  visitors  to  assist  the  Board  of  Public  Char- 
ities of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  in  visiting  and 
inspecting  such  institutions  in  the  county  of  Phil- 
adelphia as  came  under  their  supervision. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  every  year  since 


174  RACHEL    LITTLER    BODLEY. 

her  residence  in  Philadelphia  Dr.  Bodley's  influ- 
ence has  grown  stronger  and  been  more  percepti- 
ble, but  it  has  not  been  limited  to  that  city ;  it  has 
become  world-wide  through  those  who  have  car- 
ried away  with  them  her  helpful  instructions  and 
her  healthful  spirit.  The  elements  of  her  success 
have  not  all  been  peculiar  to  herself,  but  have 
simply  been  appreciated  and  improved.  Some  of 
these  have  been  good  health,  acute  powers  of  ob- 
servation, a  refined  and  modest  manner,  careful- 
ness in  details,  a  systematic  division  of  time,  and 
an  orderly  arrangement  of  material. 

For  some  years  she  has  been  the  head  of  a 
modest  but  sunny  home  in  the  vicinity  of  the  col- 
lege building  whose  central  figure  is  her  aged 
mother  who,  having  finished  her  work,  awaits 
tranquilly  by  her  daughter's  side  the  summons  to 
"come  up  higher."  Here  in  her  own  home  the 
Dean  each  autumn  holds  a  reception  in  honor  of 
the  incoming  college  class  and  here  throughout 
the  year  come  and  go  those  from  near  and  from 
far  who  are  busy  about  the  world's  work. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CANDACE    WHEELER. 

COME  with  me  in  New  York  City  to  that  well- 
known  number,  "115  East  23d  street,"  to 
the  house  of  the  "  Associated  Artists."  The  head 
of  the  association,  Mrs.  Candace  Wheeler,  is  busy, 
so  we  will  step  into  this  large  studio  in  the  rear, 
and  wait  for  her. 

This  studio  is  a  study  in  color.  The  walls,  of  a 
delicate  and  light  green,  are  covered  with  pictures  ; 
one  especially  interests  me  —  a  dark-haired  girl 
with  her  chin  resting  on  her  hand,  and  beside  her 
a  sphinx :  Modern  Egypt  and  Ancient.  Persian 
rugs  lie  thick  on  the  floor.  The  old-fashioned 
black  chairs  are  wonderfully  carved ;  serpents 
coiled  in  the  backs,  their  heads  forming  the  arms. 
Water-color  brushes  lie  across  a  bowl  on  the  table, 
beside  which  red  roses  in  a  yellow  vase  are  drop- 


176  CANDACE   WHEELER. 

ping  their  petals,  one  by  one,  on  the  open  pages 
of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  A  Child's  Garden  of 
Verses. 

Everything  about  the  studio  reminds  me  of  a 
girl's  grace  and  delicacy,  and  I  am  not  surprised 
to  learn  that  it  is  the  workshop  of  Mrs.  Wheeler's 
daughter,  the  artist,  Dora  Wheeler. 

But  here  the  mother  comes  in  to  welcome  us; 
she  is  a  happy-faced,  attractive  woman,  with  a 
cordial  manner  and  a  winsome  smile.  She  is  to 
show  us  the  artistic  fabrics  and  needlework  of  the 
famous  house.  These  art-cloths  are  of  the  best 
in  quality ;  the  silks  are  pure,  and  the  colors  fade- 
less. The  work  of  needle  and  shuttle  is  "done 
upon  honor." 

We  especially  have  come  to  look  at  the  now- 
famous  Tapestries,  which  are  unsurpassed  if  not 
unequalled  in  modern  times,  and  we  are  conscious 
of  a  feeling  of  pride  that  they  are  the  thought  of 
a  woman,  and  of  an  American  woman.  One  of 
the  most  beautiful  in  design  is  known  as  "The 
Penelope,"  a  lovely  Greek  creature  pulling  out  by 
lamplight  the  work  she  has  done  by  day,  from  the 


MRS.    CANDACE    WHEELER. 


CANDACE   WHEELER.  179 

old  classic  story.  There  are  other  "  literary  can- 
vases "  :  "  Hilda  "  from  Hawthorne's  Marble  Faun, 
and  "  Evangeline  "  from  Longfellow,  and  a  "  Hes- 
ter Prynne  "  from  The  Scarlet  Letter.  The  Zufti 
girl  and  the  "  Minnehaha "  are  both  fine  in  con- 
ception as  well  as  color.  The  latter  leans  against 
a  tree,  her  hair  falling  over  a  branch.  Bougereau 
and  Fleury  especially  commended  this  when  the 
tapestries  were  shown  in  Paris ;  the  latter  saying, 
"Her  face  is  listening."  "The  Peacock  Girl," 
dressed  in  mediaeval  costume,  feeding  her  pea- 
cocks, is  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  in  color.  Most 
of  these  tapestries  are  from  designs  by  Dora 
Wheeler,  who  has  made  each  detail  a  study,  faith- 
fully drawing  from  American  history  and  litera- 
ture. The  inspiration  for  "The  Peacock  Girl" 
came  from  a  visit  to  quaint  old  Haddon  Hall  in 
England. 

These  examples  of  pictorial  needlework  have 
won  the  distinction  of  being  treated  by  reviewers 
and  critics  as  works  of  art.  Of  "The  Birth  of 
Psyche  "  and  the  "  Winged  Moon,"  Mr.  Koehler, 
the  art-critic,  says : 


l8o  CANDACE    WHEELER. 

"  The  former  is  executed  upon  a  salmon  pink  ground  in 
shades  of  flesh  tint,  very  pale  green  and  white.  The  mind 
—  or  the  soul,  Psyche,  if  that  be  preferred  —  is  represented 
by  a  winged  female  figure,  rising  up  slowly  in  a  dreamily 
ascending  line,  like  curling  smoke,  through  the  rosy  mists 
of  a  warm  morning,  her  garment  still  trailing  along  the 
earth,  her  gossamer  wings  of  a  pale,  broken  green,  expand- 
ing in  the  mild  air  of  a  new-born  day. 

"  While  in  Psyche  we  have  the  roseate  hues  of  a  morning 
veiled  by  the  vapors  rising  from  the  earth,  the  Winged 
Moon,  although  executed  upon  a  ground  of  the  same  color, 
gives  us  the  feeling  of  a  perfect  evening.  As  to  the  com- 
position, we  have  again  a  slightly  draped  female  figure,  this 
time  with  slender  birds'  wings.  The  latter,  of  pale  yellow, 
are  folded  around  and  behind  the  figure,  and  assume  a  form 
suggesting  the  crescent  of  the  young  moon.  The  figure, 
thus  bedded  upon  its  own  wings,  floats  in  the  calm  evening 
sky,  in  which  are  slight  indications  of  bluish  or  violet  clouds, 
and  of  stars.  Painting,  whether  in  oil  or  in  water-colors, 
seems  incapable  of  adequately  rendering  this  superterrestrial 
beauty.  In  this  creation  of  the  needle  and  the  loom,  how- 
ever, there  is  a  very  potent  suggestion,  the  best  yet  given, 
of  the  glorious  effect  hinted  at." 

One  naturally  inquires  how  this  needle-woven 
tapestry  is  made.  Mr.  Koehler  explains  thus  : 

"Upon  heavy  silk  canvas  of  rather  loose  and  coarse 
texture  the  design  is  produced,  or  woven  as  it  were,  by 
introducing  threads  of  the  colors  needed  along  the  woof  upon 


CANDACE   WHEELER.  l8l 

the  face.  The  material  which  serves  as  a  basis,  specially 
made  for  the  purpose,  is  in  itself  very  beautiful,  and,  as  the 
woof  and  the  warp  are  usually  of  different  colors,  develops 
a  play  of  changing  tints,  which,  aided  by  the  rich  gloss  of 
the  silk,  gives  it  a  life  not  to  be  otherwise  attained.  As 
the  color  of  the  ground  can  never  be  wholly  suppressed  it  is 
easily  seen  that  it  fixes  the  keynote  of  the  scale  to  be  em- 
ployed, and  thus  keeps  the  artist  within  certain  decorative 
bounds,  however  strong  may  be  his  or  her  tendency  toward 
realism.  The  delicacy  of  gradation  that  can  be  obtained  by 
the  introduction  of  threads,  either  of  one  color  or  of  several 
colors  twisted  together,  along  the  woof,  is  quite  extraordi- 
nary. As  a  practical  advantage  of  these  tapestries,  it  is 
worth  noting  that  they  are  absolutely  moth  proof,  as  nothing 
but  silk,  and  occasionally  threads  of  gold  and  silver,  enter 
into  their  composition." 

Of  course  any  one  of  these  tapestries  should  com- 
mand the  large  price  belonging  to  fine-art  objects 
—  and  a  thousand  dollars  is  hardly  its  legitimate 
value.  One  consideration  greatly  enhances  this 
value,  looking  at  the  tapestry  aside  from  its  dec- 
orative quality  —  that  it  furnishes  remunerative 
labor  to  numbers  of  women.  Mrs.  Wheeler  and 
her  daughter  have  in  many  directions  proved  them- 
selves benefactors  to  their  sex,  while  they  have 
greatly  developed  the  artistic  taste  of  our  country, 


182  CANDACE   WHEELER. 

raising  the  needle  and  the  shuttle  to  the  rank  of 
the  brush  and  pigment  and  the  sculptor's  chisel. 

Do  you  ask  how  was  this  woman,  a  mother  with 
home  duties,  led  into  this  line  of  work,  which  not 
only  has  made  her  famous,  and  her  daughter,  but 
have  been  helpful  to  thousands  in  the  way  of  self- 
support  ?  Let  us  look  back  along  her  life  and  see. 

Born  in  Delaware  County,  New  York,  of  New 
England  parentage,  she  was  one  of  eight  children, 
"each  one  of  whom,"  says  a  friend  of  the  family, 
"has  reason  to  be  proud  and  thankful  for  the 
chance  of  inheritance  of  such  characters  as  the 
parents.  The  father  was  as  good  as  the  prophet 
Elijah,  and  as  fervent  as  Paul,  and  withal  possessed 
of  what  we  now  call  the  'artistic  temperament.' 
He  had  a  passionate  love  of  everything  beautiful 
in  nature,  or  in  the  interior  world  of  thought,  and 
so  fine  a  religious  and  moral  nature,  that  he  really 
became  the  conscience  of  the  community.  The 
mother,  still  living  at  eighty-six,  is  the  impersona- 
tion of  that  Yankee  gift  which  Mrs.  Stowe  calls 
'faculty,'  all  of  which  was  exercised  in  trying  to 
keep  her  children  up  to  her  own  and  the  father's 


CANDACE   WHEELER.  183 

ideal.  They  had  to  be  intelligent,  and  obedient, 
and  industrious,  and  kind  to  others,  and  truthful, 
for  she  compelled  it.  They  were  taught  that  life 
meant  work,  and  that  what  concerned  the  happi- 
ness or  welfare  of  others  was  their  business.  And 
so  they  all  grew  up  and  swarmed  out  into  the 
world,  so  early  in  life  that  she  is  wont  to  say  that 
'  her  children  all  ran  out  of  the  nest  like  chickens 
with  the  shells  still  on  their  heads.'  " 

Though  these  young  people  had  little  money, 
they  had,  you  see,  what  was  better  than  money — 
a  happy  home  and  the  willingness  to  work.  Can- 
dace,  the  third  child,  and  second  daughter,  would 
walk  with  her  father  by  the  hour,  drawing  every 
rare  flower,  which  he  picked  for  her,  just  because 
it  gave  him  pleasure  to  see  her  do  it.  So  fond  of 
poetry  was  he  that  he  clipped  from  the  newspapers 
each  fine  poem  which  he  saw,  and  saved  it  for  his 
children.  No  wonder  that  such  seed-sowing  in 
little  hearts  brought  forth  fair  fruit  of  flavor. 

At  sixteen  years  of  age  Candace  married  a 
young  merchant  and  went  to  the  city  of  New  York 
to  live.  Three  of  her  brothers  followed  her  there 


184  CANDACE   WHEELER. 

in  due  time,  adding  themselves  to  the  number  of 
country  boys  who  so  often  take  their  places  in  the 
front  rank  of  successful  merchants. 

In  her  unaccustomed  city-life,  with  all  the  pleas- 
ant country  sights  and  sounds  lost  to  her,  all  nat- 
ural beauty  blotted  out,  no  sunsets  or  mountain 
tops  or  blossoming  pastures,  nothing  seemed  beau- 
tiful to  our  young  countrywoman  outside  of  her 
home-life,  until  she  suddenly  found  that  it  was  the 
beneficent  province  of  art  to  create  beauty  for  those 
who  had  lost  nature.  Yet  a  picture  to  her  was  at 
first  a  very  inadequate  substitute  for  the  unroll- 
ment  of  an  evening  sky,  with  all  the  dusky  valleys 
of  the  Delaware  lying  in  perspective. 

The  love  of  art  and  the  companionship  of  artists 
in  time  became  a  part  of  the  family-life.  The 
Studio-buildings  were  hives  of  friends  ;  and  under 
this  genial  social  influence  young  Mrs.  Wheeler 
began  to  paint.  An  "  instinct  for  color  "  proved 
to  be  one  of  her  natural  gifts,  and  with  the  criti- 
cism from  the  artists  who  were  foremost  among 
our  American  painters,  it  was  easy  to  form  a  high 
standard  and  work  toward  it.  Her  own  friend- 


CANDACE   WHEELER.  185 

liness  had  made  artists  helpful  and  friendly, 
and  she  rapidly  expanded  in  the  sunny  atmos- 
phere. 

Fortunately  she  had  always  drawn ;  even  from 
the  time  when  the  stalk  of  tiger-lilies  she  at- 
tempted was  high  enough  to  look  down  upon  her 
little  hands.  She  had  long  ago  come  to  know 
every  expression  of  every  plant,  for  she  had  lived 
with  them,  and  had  held  her  father's  hand  while 
she  gazed  up  at  the  transparent  crimson  bell  of 
color  which  the  meadow  lily  made  between  her 
and  the  sky,  or  the  fiery  pink  which  the  wild  rose 
showed  with  the  sun  behind  it.  She  knew  at  just 
what  stage  of  growth  the  timothy-grasses  threw 
out  purple,  feathery  seeds,  and  every  curve  and 
angle  of  the  blade  and  stem  ;  and  all  this  digested 
and  assimilated  knowledge  of  color  and  form 
helped  her  rapidly  on  now  at  her  easel. 

After  some  years  of  city-life,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Wheeler  made  a  country  home  on  Long  Island 
for  their  growing  children,  and  called  it  "  Nestle- 
down,"  an  appropriate  name  for  the  home  of  four 
little  people,  who,  like  their  mother,  loved  the  big 


1 86  CANDACE   WHEELER. 

trees,  the  rustle  of  green  leaves,  the  sunshine  and 
a  quiet  home  nest. 

Twice  the  family  made  long  sojourns  in  Europe, 
where  they  all  studied  together,  music,  literature, 
the  languages  and  art ;  the  mother  as  enthusiastic 
a  student  as  her  children,  and  well-nigh  as  youth- 
ful in  her  feelings  and  sympathies. 

When  they  returned  to  New  York  from  their 
second  visit  to  Europe,  Mrs.  Wheeler's  work  for 
the  outside  world  began.  The  conditions  of  life 
in  America  had  been  changing  since  her  youth. 
She  saw  men  so  busy  in  the  hard  struggle  for 
place  and  success  that  fewer  married,  and  those 
who  did,  could  maintain  only  their  immediate  fam- 
ilies, so  that  vast  numbers  of  women  were  left 
without  homes  and  the  means  of  support. 

Of  these  women  those  who  had  accomplish- 
ments zealously  tried  to  turn  them  to  account. 
They  taught  music ;  made  fancy  articles  ;  painted 
little  pictures ;  concocted  all  sorts  of  tempting  con- 
veniences and  sold  them  to  their  friends,  or  their 
friends'  friends,  in  an  anxious,  unsuccessful  way. 

Many  of  these  women  were  the  friends  of  Mrs. 


MISS  DORA   WHEELER. 


CANDACE    WHEELER.  189 

Wheeler,  and  she  was  in  sympathy  with  each. 
This  state  of  things  at  large  became  at  last  thor- 
oughly borne  in  upon  her,  and  then  her  mother's 
New  England  faculty,  and  her  father's  zeal  for 
helping  others  suddenly  clasped  hands,  rose  up 
within  her,  and  examined  the  times  for  a  remedy. 
"Why  not,"  said  Mrs.  Wheeler,  "  bring  everything 
that  any  woman  can  make,  and  needs  to  sell,  into 
a  shop,  and  let  everybody  come  and  buy  what 
they  really  want,  and  put  an  end  to  this  forcing  of 
the  wrong  thing  upon  the  wrong  person  ?  " 

But  who  would  pay  the  rent,  and  attend  to  the 
store  ?  Mrs.  Wheeler  was  equal  to  the  emergency. 
She  called  together  a  few  of  the  best  and  the  rich- 
est women  of  New  York,  and 'asked  fqr  opinions. 
Everybody  had  seen  the  want,  everybody  was  glad 
to  hear  of  a  remedy.  Then  Mrs.  Wheeler  sat 
down  at  her  desk  and  wrote  a  circular  and  printed 
it  at  her  own  expense,  telling  the  women  of  New 
York  that  it  was  proposed  to  form  a  large  and 
influential  association  for  the  purpose  of  establish- 
ing a  place  for  the  exhibition  and  sale  of  "sculpt- 
ures, paintings,  wood-carvings,  paintings  upon 


1 90  CANDACE    WHEELER. 

slate,  porcelain  and  pottery,  art  and  ecclesiastical 
needle-work,  tapestry  and  hangings,"  which  work 
shall  be  done  by  women. 

About  two  hundred  women  responded  to  this 
circular,  and  they  formed  themselves  into  the 
New  York  Society  of  Decorative  Art.  They  took 
a  house  and  made  the  society  a  blessing  and  a 
success,  by  enlarging  the  range  of  things  women 
could  do.  China  painting,  needle-work,  decoration 
upon  wood  and  other  minor  arts  were  thoroughly 
taught.  Mrs.  Wheeler  gave  her  time  and  thought 
and  heart  fully  to  the  work. 

Soon  arose  the  question :  "  What  shall  we 
do  with  inartistic  labor  ? "  So  many  desired  to 
earn  a  livelihood,  but  had  received  no  artistic 
training.  There  must  be  a  shop  where  such  work 
could  be  received,  and  Mrs.  William  G.  Choate, 
Mrs.  Wheeler  and  others  proceeded  to  form  a 
"Woman's  Exchange."  As  Mrs.  Wheeler  was  the 
Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Decorative  Art 
Society,  she  succeeded  in  encouraging  women  in 
many  other  cities  to  form  auxiliaries  and  ex- 
changes. Now  there  are  few  American  cities 


CANDACE    WHEELER.  191 

without  these  institutions,  and  they  have  been 
copied  in  Canada,  Sweden  and  Germany. 

The  next  thought  in  Mrs.  Wheeler's  mind  was 
to  demonstrate  the  fact  that  woman's  labor,  if  well 
trained,  was  needed  in  the  world,  and  could  not 
only  make  its  demand  but  find  its  wages,  without 
the  intervention  of  charity  or  benevolence.  To 
this  end  she  proposed  to  unite  with  other  artists 
in  an  artistic  and  decorative  enterprise,  under  the 
name  of  the  "  Associated  Artists,"  where  embroid- 
ery and  decorative  needle-work  should  be  made  a 
part  of  the  scheme.  Her  friends  now  predicted  a 
failure.  But  her  husband  and  brother  were  ready 
to  aid  her  with  money.  And  she  did  not  fail. 

The  very  first  work  she  and  her  allies  were  en- 
trusted with  was  the  now  famous  drop-curtain  of 
the  Madison  Square  Theatre.  To  the  execution 
of  this  work  was  brought  no  special  technical 
knowledge  of  embroidery,  but  an  intelligent  un- 
derstanding of  the  methods  of  both  modern  and 
ancient  schools,  and  a  direct  application  of  knowl- 
edge of  pictorial  effect.  It  was  a  translation  of  a 
painter's  methods  into  needle-work.  Every  textile 


192  CANDACE   WHEELER. 

and  material  which  would  give  color  or  effect,  and 
every  method  which  would  express  drawing  and 
perspective,  were  considered,  both  broadly  and  mi- 
nutely. The  result  was  a  landscape  with  color, 
foreground,  middle  distance  and  perspective  —  in 
embroidery. 

To  Mrs.  Wheeler  the  development  of  a  school 
of  American  embroidery  meant  more  than  mere 
stitchery,  however  beautiful.  It  meant  the  train- 
ing of  bold  strong  designers,  the  teaching  of  girl 
art-students  how  to  turn  their  knowledge  in  a 
direction  where  it  was  needed,  and  with  a  needle 
instead  of  a  brush  to  treat  textiles  with  a  feeling 
belonging  to  pictures.  Already  a  better  kind  of 
talent  has  been  developed  and  has  been  brought 
to  bear  upon  a  branch  of  work  that  is  purely  fem- 
inine, and  with  a  result  that  is  a  great  gain  to  dec- 
orative art.  Yes,  from  the  "  Associated  Artists  " 
have  resulted  the  important  additions  to  the  art  of 
this  country ;  the  needlewoven  tapestries,  and  the 
manufacture  of  as  beautiful  drapery,  upholstery 
and  wall-hanging  fabrics  as  are  made  in  the  world 
to-day.  Careful  study  of  ancient  textiles,  careful 


CANDACE    WHEELER.  193 

selection  of  the  best  qualities  they  possess,  and 
careful  pursuit  of  appropriate  designs  for  modern 
fabrics  —  and  missing  them,  bold  creation  of  beau- 
tiful forms — have  made  the  "Associated  Artists' 
Textiles  "  known  among  artists  and  art-lovers  at 
home  and  abroad. 

The  following  incident  shows  what  Mrs.  Wheeler 
has  accomplished  in  decorative  design.  Messrs. 
Warren  and  Fuller,  some  two  or  three  years  ago, 
offered  two  thousand  dollars  in  prizes  for  the  best 
wall-papers,  the  judges  to  be  three  of  the  most 
prominent  architects  and  decorators  of  New  York. 
Mrs.  Wheeler  prepared  one  design,  which  had 
bee,  honey-comb,  and  clover  as  motive ;  her 
daughter  Dora,  one ;  and  Miss  Clarke,  a  young 
lady  who  had  studied  with  them  from  the  begin- 
ning of  their  work,  another.  Sixty  designs  were 
sent  from  Germany,  England  and  France,  and  two 
hundred  other  designs  were  accepted  for  the  com- 
petition. Mrs.  Wheeler  took  the  first  prize  of 
one  thousand  dollars,  Miss  Wheeler,  Miss  Clarke 
and  Miss  Townsend,  the  second,  third  and  fourth. 
Four  women  took  all  the  prizes  ! 


194  CANDACE   WHEELER. 

She  herself  believes  that  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant things  she  has  done  is  "  to  teach  women 
that  they  must  bring  perseverance,  character  and 
teachableness,  as  well  as  technical  skill  to  their 
work  in  the  world." 

Back  of  her  own  wonderful  executive  ability 
and  knowledge,  she  has  great  kindness  and  sym- 
pathy, without  which  no  person  can  be  a  good 
teacher.  She  has,  says  a  lady  who  has  worked 
with  her  for  years,  "  the  biggest  heart  in  the  world." 
She  usually  gives  one  afternoon  each  week  to  talk 
with  those  women  who  wish  to  do  good  and  re- 
munerative work,  and  are  glad  to  come  to  her  from 
distant  cities  for  suggestions. 

There  has  been  another  reason  for  her  doing 
humanitarian  work.  The  death  of  her  oldest 
daughter,  a  lovely  young  mother,  made  an  active 
life,  one  that  took  her  out  of  herself  and  her  sor- 
row, a  necessity  to  her.  How  often  God  plans 
great  work  for  his  creatures,  in  a  way  quite  differ- 
ent from  their  own  careful  sketching  ! 

Mrs.  Wheeler  has  done  much  other  public  work. 
She  has  been  one  of  the  managers  of  Cooper  In- 


CANDACE   WHEELER.  195 

stitute,  lecturing  before  the  students  upon  designs 
as  applied  to  textiles,  and  also  before  the  Gotham 
Art  School  of  artisans  and  artists ;  a  member  of 
the  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  and  a  writer 
of  books  which  her  daughter  has  illustrated.  She 
was  invited  to  the  Silk  Congress  in  England,  as 
an  expert  in  silk-weaving. 

She  has  plans  in  prospect  for  a  Woman's  Hotel, 
for  self-supporting  women,  a  co-operative,  dignified, 
self-managed,  home-like  home,  and  when  one  is 
established  she  hopes  it  will  be  the  mother  of 
thousands,  as  the  Decorative  Art  Society  and  the 
Woman's  Exchange  have  been. 

If  Mrs.  Wheeler's  public  life  has  been  success- 
ful, not  less,  be  sure  to  take  note,  has  her  home- 
life  been  a  happy  one.  "  Nestledown,"  a  red, 
roomy  cottage  in  the  midst  of  three  hundred  acres 
on  Long  Island,  is  a  most  charming  place  to  visit. 
It  is  a  home,  with  its  great  fireplaces,  which  artists 
and  poets  enjoy ;  glowing  with  dainty  color.  The 
hall  in  light  Venetian  red,  contains  Dora's  first 
work,  along  its  stairway  ;  a  procession  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  family,  in  Japanese  costumes,  trooping 


196  CANDACE   WHEELER. 

up  to  bed,  one  with  a  doll  in  her  arms,  and  the 
artist-son,  Durham,  now  grown  to  manhood,  with 
a  toy  gun  in  his  hand.  The  parlor  is  in  brown 
and  gold  hues,  the  frieze,  fleur-de-lis  on  matting. 
The  library  in  copper  and  robin's-egg  blue,  is 
rich  in  books,  and  pictures,  many  of  them  remem- 
brances from  authors  and  artists.  The  motto  of 
the  house  is  engraved  over  the  mantle : 

"  Who  lives  merrily,  he  lives  mightily ; 
Without'en  gladness  availeth  no  treasure." 

The  dining-room  especially  interested  me  from  its 
wall-paper,  for  which  Mrs.  Wheeler  received  her 
thousand-dollar  prize,  the  exquisite  china  on  every 
hand,  and  her  paintings  on  either  side  of  the  side- 
board of  mullein  and  cat-tails.  Not  less  inviting 
were  the  sleeping-rooms,  where  the  furnishings 
showed  the  exquisite  taste  of  mother  and  daughter. 
Mr.  Wheeler  has  a  right  to  feel  proud  of  his  fam- 
ily, as  he  evidently  does.  The  pet  of  the  family 
must  not  be  left  out ;  Ponto,  a  great  dog,  yellow- 
color  with  intelligent  white  face,  given  when  a 
puppy,  by  the  monies  of  St.  Bernard,  to  General 


CANDACE   WHEELER.  197 

Grant,  and  afterward  to  the  Wheeler  family  by 
General  Badeau. 

Their  summer  home  on  the  top  of  the  Catskill 
Mountains,  must  be  no  less  charming  than  "  Nes- 
tledown."  They  call  it  "  Penny-royal ;  "  "  be- 
cause," say  its  owners,  "  it  scarcely  cost  a  penny," 
and  "because,"  say  the  friends  who  visit  there, 
"  it  is  the  most  royal  place  they  ever  saw." 

Thus  in  the  prime  of  her  womanhood,  Mrs. 
Wheeler  has  come  to  success  along  the  way  of 
noble  thought  for  others,  by  wise  use  of  her  time, 
by  careful  development  of  her  own  natural  tastes 
and  gifts,  and  by  a  cheerful  courage  that  of  itself 
presages  success.  And  though  it  be  her  daily 
work  to  plan,  to  direct,  to  govern,  to  buy  and  to 
sell  and  to  estimate  carefully  and  safely,  to  be  a 
good  business  woman  as  well  as  an  artist  and  a 
dreamer  of  dreams  of  beauty,  she  has  kept  her 
womanly  individuality  and  the  greatest  charm  of 
woman,  lovableness. 


CHAPTER    X. 

CLARA   BARTON. 

I  BELIEVE  I  have  never  looked  upon  a  happier 
face  than  that  of  Clara  Barton.  The  unselfish 
heart,  the  hopeful  nature,  the  helpful  spirit,  the 
definite  purpose  to  bless  the  world,  are  all  revealed 
in  the  radiance  of  that  face. 

And  hers  has  been  an  eventful  life.  A  New 
England  girl,  born  in  North  Oxford,  Mass.,  the 
youngest  of  a  large  family,  enjoying  the  glee  of 
snow-sliding,  and  the  gentle  gathering  of  wild 
flowers  in  the  summer  sunshine,  she  came  care- 
lessly to  her  eleventh  year;  then  a  great  duty 
broke  in  upon  this  gladsome  girlhood. 

A  brother,  by  a  terrible  accident,  became  for 

some  years  an  invalid.     And  to  the  lot  of  the 

buoyant  Clara  it  fell  to  nurse  him  day  and  night 

for  nearly  two  years,  taking  only  one  half  day  for 

198 


CLAKA    BARTON. 


CLARA    BARTON.  2OI . 

recreation.  Who  could  know  then  that  the  girl 
was  already  fitting  for  heroic  deeds  by  the  side  of 
dying  soldiers,  both  in  Europe  and  America ;  that 
she  was  beginning  that  work  which  was  to  make 
her  name  forever  remembered  and  cherished? 
Truly,  a  hand  leads  us  though  we  may  not  feel  it, 
and  the  way  is  opened  for  us  to  walk  in,  though 
we  may  not  see  our  guide. 

When  Clara  was  sixteen  she  began  to  teach 
school,  the  natural  occupation  for  an  energetic, 
busy,  conscientious,  well-trained  New  England 
girl.  Later,  she  took  up  a  full  course  of  study 
at  Clinton,  N.  Y.,  and  then  went  back  to  her 
work. 

But  Miss  Barton  seemed  always  to  be  reaching 
out  to  do  the  hard  things  in  life ;  the  things  which 
others  shrank  from  taking  hold  of  —  not  but  that 
she  shrank  too ;  yet  as  she  said  years  afterward, 
when  she  was  the  only  woman  among  the  swamps 
and  sands  of  Morris  Island,  "Why,  somebody  had 
to  go  and  take  care  of  the  soldiers,  so  I  went." 

In  1853  she  undertook  a  free  school  in  Borden- 
town,  N.  J.  There  was  a  strong  prejudice  against 


202  CLARA    BARTON. 

such  a  school ;  she  was  assured  it  would  prove  a 
failure,  but  she  believed  in  it,  and  said  she  would 
assume  the  responsibility  for  three  months  at  her 
own  expense.  She  began  with  six  scholars  in  an 
old  building,  made  this  little  school  grow  into  two 
large  ones,  and  its  influence  secured  the  erection 
of  a  fine  building  with  five  hundred  pupils  on  the 
roll. 

Worn  with  the  ardent  labor  —  as  who  is  not  that 
gives  genuine  sympathy  and  devotion  to  a  work  ? 
—  she  resigned,  and  went  to  Washington  for  rest 
among  relatives,  and  to  live  awhile  in  a  milder 
climate.  While  there,  some  embarrassments  hav- 
ing developed  in  the  Patent  Office,  Miss  Barton 
was  recommended  to  the  Commissioner  as  one 
who  was  honest,  capable  and  thorough ;  and  for 
three  years  she  labored  faithfully  in  that  new  field- 
but  was  removed  during  the  Buchanan  administra- 
tion, because  she  was  said  to  be  a  "  Black  Repub- 
lican." She  was  reinstated,  but  resigned  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Civil  War,  for  a  broader  work. 

When  the  Sixth  Massachusetts  Regiment  ar- 
rived in  Washington,  from  the  bloodshed  in  Balti- 


CLARA    BARTON.  203 

more,  Miss  Barton  was  among  those  who  met  the 
soldiers  at  the  cars.  When  they  were  quartered 
at  the  Capitol,  she  helped  secure  baskets  of  food 
for  them,  and  read  to  the  wounded  what  the  papers 
were  saying  of  their  heroic  conduct. 

When  the  war  began  in  earnest,  and  comforts 
for  the  soldiers  poured  in  from  the  people,  many 
sent  direct  to  Miss  Barton,  feeling  that  their  pack- 
ages would  surely  reach  the  sons  and  brothers  for 
whom  they  were  intended.  Her  own  room  was 
soon  filled,  and  overflowed  into  spacious  ware- 
houses ;  and  when  the  boats  went  down  the  Poto- 
mac, she  was  on  board  with  her  precious  freight 
for  the  hospitals. 

Late  in  1861,  she  came  home  to  see  her  aged 
father,  eighty-six  years  old,  who  in  his  youth  had 
served  under  General  Wayne,  and  was  anxious  to 
hear  about  the  work  which  his  youngest  child  was 
doing.  She  told  him  how  her  heart  constantly 
ached  for  those  at  the  front,  who  lay  in  suffering  on 
the  battlefields,  and  how  she  longed  to  go  to  them ; 
and  the  old  father  said :  "  Go,  if  you  feel  it  your 
duty  to  go  !  I  know  what  soldiers  are,  and  I  know 


204  CLARA    BARTON. 

that  every  true  soldier  will  respect  you  and  your 
errand." 

But  when  she  offered  herself  to  go  beyond  the 
lines,  there  was  no  place  for  her.  Woman-like 
she  made  a  place.  She  went  to  Assistant  Quarter- 
master-General Rucker,  with  tears  on  her  face. 
His  generous  spirit  responded,  for  he  believed 
that  a  true  woman  could  safely  and  properly  go 
anywhere,  and  be  God's  ministering  angel,  and 
he  gave  her  a  "  Godspeed." 

And  then,  says  Miss  Lucy  Larcom,  in  Our  Fa- 
mous Women,  in  a  sketch  of  Miss  Barton's  work : 

"We  may  catch  a  glimpse  of  her  at  Chantilly  —  in  the 
darkness  of  the  rainy  midnight  bending  over  a  dying  boy 
who  took  her  supporting  arm  and  soothing  voice  for  his 
sister's  —  or  falling  into  a  brief  sleep  on  the  wet  ground  in 
her  tent,  almost  under  the  feet  of  flying  cavalry;  or  riding 
in  one  of  her  train  of  army-wagons  towards  another  field, 
subduing  by  the  way  a  band  of  mutinous  teamsters  into  her 
firm  friends  and  allies ;  or  at  the  terrible  battle  of  Antietam 
(where  the  regular  army-supplies  did  not  arrive  till  three  days 
afterward)  furnishing  from  her  wagons  cordials  and  bandages 
for  the  wounded,  making  gruel  for  the  fainting  men  from  the 
meal  in  which  her  medicines  had  been  packed,  extracting 
with  her  own  hand  a  bullet  from  the  cheek  of  a  wounded 
soldier,  tending  the  fallen  all  day,  with  her  throat  parched 


CLARA    BARTON.  205 

and  her  face  blackened  by  sulphurous  smoke,  and  at  night, 
when  the  surgeons  were  dismayed  at  finding  themselves  left 
with  only  one  half-burnt  candle  amid  thousands  of  bleeding, 
dying  men,  illumining  the  field  with  candles  and  lanterns 
her  forethought  had  supplied.  No  wonder  they  called  her 
the  'Angel  of  the  Battlefield.' 

"  We  may  see  her  at  Fredericksburg,  attending  to  the 
wounded  who  were  brought  to  her,  whether  they  wore  the 
blue  or  the  gray.  One  rebel  officer,  whose  death-agonies 
she  soothed,  besought  her  with  his  last  breath  not  to  cross 
the  river,  in  his  gratitude  betraying  to  her  that  the  move- 
ments of  the  rebels  were  only  a  ruse  to  draw  the  Union 
troops  on  to  destruction.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  she  fol- 
lowed the  soldiers  across  the  Rappahannock,  undaunted  by 
the  dying  man's  warning.  And  we  may  watch  her  after  the 
defeat,  when  the  half-starved,  half-frozen  soldiers  were 
brought  to  her,  having  great  fires  built  to  lay  them  around, 
administering  cordials,  and  causing  an  old  chimney  to  be 
pulled  down  for  bricks  to  warm  them  with,  while  she  her- 
self had  but  the  shelter  of  a  tattered  tent  between  her  and 
the  piercing  winds  " 

One  of  her  friends  for  many  years,  General  J.  J. 
Elwell  of  Cleveland,  O.,  a  brave  and  noble  soldier 
on  many  battlefields,  gives  me  this  illustration  of 
her  bravery : 

"  Miss  Barton  once  came  very  near  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy  rather  than  abandon  a 
desperately  wounded  boy.  The  incident  occurred 


206  CLARA    BARTON. 

in  the  retreat  of  Pope  during  the  several  days 
fighting  at  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run. 

"  Miss  Barton  was  about  stepping  on  the  last 
car  conveying  the  wounded  from  the  field  with  the 
enemy's  cavalry  in  sight,  and  shot  and  shell  from 
their  guns  falling  in  our  disordered  ranks,  when  a 
soldier  told  her  there  was  left  behind  in  the  pine 
bushes,  where  he  had  fallen,  a  wounded  young 
soldier,  that  he  could  not  live,  and  that  he  was 
calling  for  his  mother. 

"  She  followed  her  guide  to  where  the  boy  lay. 
It  was  growing  dark  and  raining.  She  raised  him 
up  and  quietly  soothed  him.  When  he  heard  her 
voice  he  said  in  his  delirium,  'Oh!  my  mother  has 
come.  Don't  leave  me  to  die  in  these  dark  woods 
alone  —  do  stay  with  me  —  don't  leave  me.' 

"  At  that  moment  an  officer  cried  out  to  her : 
'  Come  immediately,  or  you  will  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  rebs  —  they  are  on  us.' 

" '  Well,  take  this  boy.' 

"'No,'  said  the  officer,  'there  is  no  transporta- 
tion for  dying  men.  We  have  hardly  room  for  the 
living.  Come  quick.' 


CLARA   BARTON.  207 

"'Then  I  will  stay  with  this  poor  boy.  We 
both  go,  or  both  stay.' 

"  Both  were  therefore  taken  on  the  car,  and  the 
wounded  boy  carried  to  one  of  the  Washington 
hospitals,  where  his  New  England  mother  found, 
nursed,  closed  his  eyes  in  death,  and  took  him  to 
his  old  home,  where  he  rests  with  his  kindred.  I 
heard  read  a  most  touching  letter,  all  covered  with 
tear  drops,  full  of  expressions  of  thankfulness  and 
gratitude  to  the  brave,  gentle  woman  who  had 
rescued  her  son  from  a  lonely  death  in  the  woods, 
and  sent  him  to  Washington  where  she  could  meet 
and  administer  the  consolations  of  a  mother  to  a 
dying  child. 

"  At  another  time  she  had  raised  a  faint,  fallen 
soldier  in  her  arms,  and  just  when  she  was  plac- 
ing a  cordial  to  his  lips,  a  solid  shot  or  shell  took 
him  out  of  her  arms,  covering  her  with  his  blood. 

"  On  Morris  Island,  she  was  the  only  woman 
during  the  siege  of  Fort  Wagner,  where  she  con- 
tributed greatly  to  the  relief  of  the  suffering  and 
wounded  soldiers.  The  Island  was  itself  a  grave- 
yard, having  been  occupied  first  by  the  rebels  and 


208  CLARA   BARTON. 

then  by  our  forces.  A  cup  of  good  water  was  no- 
where to  be  found.  Wells  were  shallow  and  the 
water  brackish ;  almost  deadly  in  its  character. 
The  siege  was  in  hot  weather,  and  the  climate 
malarious.  Every  part  of  the  island  could  be 
reached  by  the  guns  of  Sumpter,  Wagner,  and 
other  forts.  Here  Miss  Barton  stayed,  and  on 
the  night  of  the  assault  when  we  lost  fifteen  hun- 
dred men  in  an  hour,  she  was  there  to  succor  the 
wounded.  She  soon  become  dangerously  ill  in 
her  tent.  I  appealed  to  her  to  return  to  Port 
Royal,  or  she  would  certainly  die.  Her  answer 
was,  'Do  you  think  I  will  leave  here  during  a 
bombardment  ? ' 

"  After  a  time,  she  was  carried  away,  almost  by 
force,  to  a  more  healthy  locality,  where  she  was 
ill  for  a  long  period.  While  on  Morris  Island  she 
helped  care  for  General  A.  C.  Voris  of  Ohio, 
General  Leggett  of  Connecticut,  who  losing  his 
leg  would  probably  have  died  had  it  not  been  for 
her  timely  help,  and  many  other  officers." 

General  Voris  says :  "  I  was  shot  with  an  Enfield 
cartridge  within  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of 


CLARA   BARTON.  209 

the  fort,  and  so  disabled  that  I  could  not  go  for- 
ward. I  was  in  an  awful  predicament,  perfectly 
exposed  to  canister  from  Wagner,  and  shell  from 
Gregg  and  Sumpter  in  front,  and  the  enfilade 
from  James  Island.  I  tried  to  dig  a  trench  in  the 
sand  with  my  sabre,  into  which  I  might  crawl,  but 
the  dry  sand  would  fall  back  in  place  about  as 
fast  as  I  could  scrape  it  out  with  my  narrow  im- 
plement. Failing  in  this,  on  all-fours  I  crawled 
toward  the  lea  of  the  beach,  which  I  hoped  might 
shelter  me  a  little,  which  was  but  a  few  yards  off. 
.  .  A  charge  of  canister  all  round  me  aroused  my 
reverie  to  thoughts  of  action ;  I  abandoned  the 
idea  of  taking  the  fort  and  ordered  a  retreat  of 
myself,  which  I  undertook  to  execute  in  a  most 
unmartial  manner  on  my  hands  and  knees  spread 
out  like  a  turtle ;  I  moved  toward  the  rear  at  the 
slowest  pace  possible  and  say  that  I  made  any 
progress. 

"  After  working  this  way  for  a  half-hour  and 
making  perhaps  two  hundred  yards,  two  boys  of 
the  Sixty-second  Ohio  found  me  and  carried  me  to 
our  first  parallel,  where  had  been  arranged  an  ex- 


210  CLARA    BARTON. 

tempore  hospital.  After  resting  a  while  I  was  put 
on  the  horse  of  my  Lieutenant  Colonel,  from  which 
he  had  been  shot  that  night,  and  started  for  the 
lower  end  of  the  island,  one  and  a  half  miles  off, 
where  better  hospital  arrangements  had  been  pre- 
pared. Oh !  what  an  awful  ride  that  was  !  A  sol- 
dier walked  along  each  side  of  the  horse  to  hold 
me  from  falling  off.  Every  step  taken  sent  a 
pang  through  my  tortured  body.  But  I  got  there 
at  last,  by  midnight.  I  had  been  on  duty  for 
forty-two  hours  without  sleep,  under  the  most  try- 
ing circumstances,  and  my  soul  longed  for  sleep, 
which  I  got  in  this  wise :  an  army  blanket  was 
doubled  and  laid  on  the  soft  side  of  a  plank,  with 
an  overcoat  for  a  pillow,  on  which  I  laid  my  worn- 
out  body. 

"  And  such  a  sleep !  I  dreamed  that  I  heard 
the  shouts  of  my  boys  in  victory,  that  the  rebel- 
lion was  broken,  that  the  Union  was  saved,  that 
we  were  a  united  people  again,  and  that  I  was  at 
my  old  home  and  that  my  dear  wife  was  trying  to 
soothe  my  pain ;  in  my  rapture  I  tried  to  shout, 
but  my  throat  was  husky,  my  lips  parched,  and  my 


CLARA   BARTON.  211 

tongue  was  unable  to  respond.  My  sleepy  emo- 
tions awoke  me,  and  a  dear,  blessed  woman  was 
bathing  my  temples  and  fanning  my  fevered  face ; 
Clara  Barton  was  there,  an  angel  of  mercy  doing 
all  in  mortal  power  to  assuage  the  miseries  of  the 
unfortunate  soldiers." 

And  yet  when  I  wrote  to  Miss  Barton  asking  for 
some  data  for  this  sketch,  she  modestly  replied : 
"  The  humdrum  work  of  my  every-day  life  seems  to 
me  quite  without  incident.  The  persons  who  use 
their  brains,  tongues  and  pens  for  the  improve- 
ment of  their  kind,  are  those  of  whom  biographies 
may  profitably  be  written.  The  grand  things  their 
tongues  and  pens  have  said  are  accessible,  and 
form  a  living  inspiration  to  others.  But  me ;  I 
know  of  nothing  remarkable  that  I  have  done." 

After  the  war,  letters  poured  in  upon  her  from 
broken-hearted  mothers  asking  that  the  burial 
places  of  their  boys  might  be  found.  Talking  the 
matter  over  with  President  Lincoln,  it  was  decided 
that  she  should  go  to  Annapolis,  where  the  sur- 
vivors of  Andersonville  were  received,  and  attend 
to  this  correspondence.  Three  days  after  the  an- 


212  CLARA   BARTON. 

nouncement  was  made  that  she  would  be  there, 
she  arrived,  and  to  her  amazement  found  four 
bushels  of  letters  awaiting  her. 

Soon  after  this  she  returned  to  Washington,  es- 
tablished a  Bureau  of  Records  of  Missing  Men, 
employed  several  clerks  to  assist  her,  and  com- 
piled from  hospital  and  prison-rolls,  and  from 
burial-lists  as  complete  a  record  as  possible. 
Later  she  visited  Andersonville,  and  by  the  aid  of 
a  Union  prisoner,  who  being  engaged  in  hospital 
service  had  preserved  the  prison-rolls,  she  identi- 
fied all  but  about  four  hundred  of  the  thirteen 
thousand  graves  of  soldiers  buried  there,  placing 
a  head-board  at  each  grave,  and  a  fence  around 
the  cemetery. 

For  all  this  work  she  raised  her  own  money, 
Congress  reimbursing  her  afterwards,  by  an  ap- 
propriation of  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  During 
these  four  or  five  years  of  labor,  she  lectured  fre- 
quently both  East  and  West  upon  experiences  of 
the  war,  holding  audiences  spellbound  by  her  elo- 
quent and  sympathetic  recitals. 

In  1869,  broken  in  health,  she  turned  to  Europe 


CLARA   BARTON.  213 

for  rest,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Alps  at  Geneva. 
But  there  another  work  was  brought  unto  her  very 
doors.  Five  years  previously,  an  International 
Association  called  the  "  Red  Cross  Society  "  had 
been  formed  at  Geneva,  whose  object  was  the 
lessening  of  the  horrors  of  war,  by  rendering  neu- 
tral all  surgeons,  chaplains,  and  other  persons 
engaged  in  caring  for  the  wounded,  of  both  friend 
and  foe,  extending  over  them  the  perpetual  shelter 
of  the  white  flag  of  truce. 

The  United  States  had  been  solicited  to  join 
in  this  treaty  among  the  nations,  but  strangely 
enough  seemed  indifferent.  The  leaders  of  the 
Society  sought  Miss  Barton,  and  urged  her  to 
interest  her  country.  This  she  promised  to  do. 
But  other  work  was  close  at  hand.  The  Franco- 
Prussian  war  had  begun.  The  Red  Cross  Com- 
mittee at  Geneva  came  to  Miss  Barton  again  and 
asked  that  she  go  at  once  with  them  to  the  battle- 
field, and  ill  though  she  was,  she  would  not  refuse. 
Her  strong  executive  hand,  her  busy  organizing 
systematizing  brain  were  felt  at  once.  When  Stras- 
burg  capitulated  and  twenty  thousand  were  home- 


214  CLARA    BARTON. 

less  and  starving,  she  provided  materials  for  thirty 
thousand  garments  to  be  made  by  poor  women,  who 
needed  to  earn  money  for  their  daily  bread  ;  then 
distributed  the  garments.  She  aided  the  starving 
people  at  Metz,  and  the  wounded  at  Sedan.  She 
entered  Paris  on  foot  during  the  days  of  the  Com- 
mune, distributing  food  and  clothing  to  the  needy. 
Once,  when,  eager  for  bread,  so  that  the  mob  over- 
come the  police,  she  came  out  of  her  house  and 
spoke  to  them ;  they  said  "  God !  it  is  an  angel," 
and  became  quiet  and  orderly. 

While  in  Germany  she  spent  much  time  with 
the  Grand  Duchess  of  Baden,  the  daughter  of  Em- 
peror William,  a  noble  woman,  and,  like  the  Em- 
press Augusta,  devoted  to  the  Red  Cross  Society. 

Miss  Barton  says  of  this  regal  woman :  "  Her 
many  and  beautiful  castles,  with  their  magnificent 
grounds,  were  at  once  transformed  into  military 
hospitals,  and  her  entire  court,  with  herself  at  its 
head,  formed  into  a  committee  of  superintendence 
and  organized  for  relief.  I  have  seen  a  wounded 
Arab  from  the  French  armies,  who  knew  no  word 
of  any  language  but  his  own,  stretch  out  his  arms 


ORDERS   AND    DECORATIONS    RECEIVED    BY    MISS    KAKTON. 


CLARA    BARTON.  217 

to  her  in  adoration  and  blessing  as  she  passed  his 
bed." 

The  Grand  Duchess  gave  Miss  Barton  a  beau- 
tiful Red  Cross  broach  in  gold  and  enamel,  and 
the  Emperor  gave  her  the  Iron  Cross,  given  only 
to  those  who  have  done  brave  deeds  on  the  field 
of  battle. 

In  1873  she  returned  to  America,  and  "  though 
so  ill  that  through  years  of  suffering,"  she  says,  "  I 
forgot  how  to  walk,  I  remembered  my  resolve 
and  my  promise,  about  the  Red  Cross  Society." 
By  much  personal  persuasion,  the  Government  was 
at  last  brought  to  join  itself  to  the  thirty-one  States 
already  in  the  humane  compact,  and  President 
Garfield  appointed  Miss  Barton  President  of  the 
American  Association  of  the  Red  Cross. 

She  soon  saw  the  need  that  in  our  country  the 
society  should  act  also  in  time  of  peace,  and  she 
secured  an  amendment  whereby  calamities  by  fire, 
flood,  and  other  misfortunes  could  be  ameliorated 
by  the  aid  of  the  organization. 

Such  misfortunes  came.  In  the  great  fires  in 
Michigan,  in  the  recent  floods  along  the  Missis- 


2l8  CLARA   BARTON. 

sippi  and  Ohio  rivers  Miss  Barton  dispensed  the 
gifts  of  the  American  people ;  now  providing  seeds 
for  fields,  and  goods  for  building  homes  anew,  and 
now  sending  a  pretty  doll  with  these  words  pinned 
to  the  dress  :  "  Little  Florence  Jones  of  Western 
Springs,  111.,  sends  this  doll  to  some  little  girl  five 
years  old,  who  has  lost  all  her  dollies."  Truly, 
said  the  newspapers,  "  The  flag  of  the  Red  Cross 
has  won  the  deepest  confidence,  love  and  respect 
from  the  people  on  both  sides  of  four  thousand 
miles  of  river." 

After  the  earthquake  in  Charleston,  Miss  Bar- 
ton at  once  hastened  thither  with  supplies.  While 
there,  being  invited  to  a  reunion  of  the  Yates  Pha- 
lanx in  Illinois,  she  wrote  to  them  : 

"And  Charleston  herself,  standing  thunderstruck,  but 
still  manly,  firm  and  brave,  says,  with  bated  breath :  '  We 
are  stricken,  but  it  was  worth  an  earthquake  to  us  to  receive 
the  sympathy  and  learn  the  spirit  of  our  Northern  country- 
men and  women.  We  never  knew  them  till  now;  their 
courage  was  great,  but  their  magnanimity  is  greater.  We 
thank  God,  to-day,  that  we  are  one  people,  and  one  people 
we  will  remain;  we  would  fight  harder  to  stay  in  the  Union 
than  we  ever  did  to  get  out  of  it.'  General  Mann,  tell  the 
old  39th  this,  and  that  at  last  they  are  fully  victorious,  not 


CLARA    BARTON.  219 

only  in  war,  but  in  peace  —  they  have  conquered.  Tell  them 
that  as  I  stood  in  the  dismantled  dome  of  Charleston  Or- 
phan House,  last  week,  and  looked  over  the  bay  upon  the 
glittering  sands  of  Morris  Island,  I  fancied  us  all  there 
again ;  that  in  memory  I  saw  the  bayonets  glisten ;  the 
swamp  angel  threw  her  bursting  bombs  ;  the  fleet  thundered 
its  canonade,  and  the  little  dark  line  of  blue  trailed  its  way 
in  the  dark  to  the  belching  walls  of  Wagner ;  tell  them  from 
me,  what  you  will  not  of  yourself,  that  I  saw  again  their 
fearless  leader  waving  them  on,  up  and  over  the  parapets 
into  the  jaws  of  death,  and  heard  the  clang  of  the  death- 
dealing  sabres  as  they  grappled  with  the  foe.  I  saw  the 
ambulances  laden  with  agony,  and  the  wounded  slowly 
crawling  to  me  down  the  tide-washed  beach,  Voris  and 
Cumminger  gasping  in  their  blood;  heard  the  deafening 
clatter  of  the  hoofs  of  '  Old  Sam,'  as  Elwell  madly  galloped 
up  under  the  walls  of  the  fort  for  orders.  I  heard  the 
tender,  wailing  fife,  the  muffled  drum,  and  the  last  shots, 
as  the  pitiful  little  graves  grew  thick  in  the  shifting 
sands. 

"All  this  for  an  entrance  into  Charleston,  and  never 
gained.  I  turned  and  looked  upon  her  now,  a  mass  of 
ruins ;  there  stood  beside  me  the  men  who  had  held  her 
forts  and  manned  her  guns. 

"'Behold  what  God  hath  wrought,'  I  said;  and  awed 
as  if  by  Almighty  presence,  hearts  beating  low  and  eyes 
dim  with  memories  old,  we  joined  hands  and  picked  our 
way  down  the  shaken  staircases  to  the  broken  city  at  our 
feet." 

For  a  year  Miss  Barton  was  at  the  head  of  the 


220  CLARA    BARTON. 

Woman's  Reformatory  Prison  at  Sherborne,  Mass., 
and  won  the  highest  confidence.  As  I  was  walk- 
ing with  her  one  evening  through  the  halls,  a  young 
convict  sprang  out  of  bed,  and  stood  half  hidden 
behind  her  grated  door. 

"What  is  it?"  said  the  kind  voice  of  Miss 
Barton. 

"  I  heard  you  coming,  and  I  just  wanted  to  look 
at  you,"  was  the  low  response. 

Passing  two  large  letter  boxes,  I  asked  their  use. 
"  One  is  that  they  may  drop  letters  in  to  me,  that 
they  may  tell  me  anything  and  everything.  They 
often  write  because  they  are  so  lonesome." 

Oh !  for  such  wardens  in  all  the  prisons  of  earth. 

"  The  other  box  is  for  letters  which  they  may 
write  to  the  Commissioners  about  any  complaints 
they  have  to  make ;  and  nobody  can  see  what  they 
write." 

Abundant  honors  have  come  to  Miss  Barton. 
Queen  Natalie  of  Servia  has  conferred  upon  her 
the  Servian  decoration  of  the  Red  Cross,  suspended 
by  red,  white  and  blue  ribbons  —  a  compliment  to 
the  Union  colors.  The  German  survivors  of  the 


CLARA    BARTON.  221 

Franco-Prussian  war  elected  her  a  member  of 
their  society,  and  sent  a  beautiful  diploma.  At 
the  opening  of  the  World's  Exposition  at  New 
Orleans,  a  day  was  given  to  the  Red  Cross  So- 
ciety, Miss  Barton  sending  a  flag  with  the  Red 
Cross  between  the  stars.  At  the  last  Red  Cross 
gathering  at  Geneva,  she  received  a  great  ovation 
from  prominent  persons.  Among  two  hundred  dis- 
tinguished guests  at  an  official  dinner,  Miss  Barton 
was  the  only  lady  present.  From  the  Woman's 
Relief  Corps  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic, she  has  received  a  Maltese  Cross  suspended 
from  a  bar  pin,  bearing  the  name  Clara  Barton. 
The  red  Geneva  cross  which  drops  over  the  ribbon 
is  of  California  gold,  set  with  a  diamond  solitaire. 
In  her  eloquent  response,  Miss  Barton  said : 

"  And  it  is  neither  in  vain  nor  too  soon  that  you 
learn  your  lessons,  for,  whether  one  will  or  no,  the 
time  is  coming  in  the  march  of  human  progress 
when  you  will  be  called  to  take  a  part  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  Government  under  which  you  live. 
Desired  or  not,  well  or  ill,  veteran  comrades,  it  is 
coming.  Well  or  ill,  sister  comrades,  it  must  be 


222  CLARA    BARTON. 

so.  The  day  is  marching  on  when  it  shall  be  a 
part  of  your  duty  as  citizens  to  help  judge  of  the 
welfare  of  the  nation,  of  the  causes  and  necessities 
for  war,  and  to  say  of  yourselves  wherefor  you 
bear  and  rear  sons.  It  can  no  more  be  stayed 
than  a  tidal  wave,  and  my  charge  to  you,  my 
sister  comrades,  is  that  you  learn  your  lessons 
faithfully." 

Surely,  the  world  has  been  made  better  by  the 
life  of  Clara  Barton. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

ALICE    E.     FREEMAN. 

ON  the  Albany  Railroad,  midway  between 
Boston  and  Worcester,  stands  a  group  of 
buildings  beautiful  for  situation,  grand  in  archi- 
tectural proportions,  and  perfectly  adapted  to  the 
uses  for  which  they  were  constructed.  The  broad 
undulating  acres  border  on  a  lake  whose  indented 
shores  are  covered  with  stately  trees  and  beautiful 
villas.  The  cultivated  lawns  and  gardens  which 
are  seen  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  sparkling 
water  are  filled  with  every  variety  of  tree  and 
shrub,  and  every  device  of  landscape  gardening. 
The  parterres  and  terraces  sloping  down  to  the 
water's  edge  are  covered  with  flowers  of  every  hue, 
transplanted  from  every  clime,  and  are  such  as  one 
might  see  on  the  shores  of  the  beautiful  Como. 
Lily-pads  cover  the  surface  of  Waban  water  and 
223 


224  ALICE    E.    FREEMAN. 

every  wild  flower  known  to  New  England  blooms 
along  the  banks.  Here  the  anemones  and  violets 
first  show  their  beauty  in  the  early  spring,  and  here 
in  the  autumn  the  purple  asters  and  the  brilliant 
golden-rod  linger  long  after  they  have  disappeared 
from  the  neighboring  meadows  (as  if  to  say  we 
cannot  leave  these  shady  haunts  and  walks).  The 
whole  scene  is  one  of  surpassing  beauty  and  it 
would  seem  that  nature  with  lavish  hand  had  pre- 
pared it  for  some  grand  purpose. 

The  steward  into  whose  possession  all  this  had 
fallen,  and  who  had  for  years  been  planting  his 
vineyards  and  trees  and  preparing  the  grounds  for 
a  family  mansion  which  should  crown  and  complete 
the  picture,  had  been  saying  to  himself :  "  Soul, 
thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years,  take 
thine  ease,  eat,  drink  and  be  merry."  Under  the 
shade  of  these  stately  trees  he  had  spent  his  lei- 
sure hours  with  the  beautiful  boy,  his  only  son, 
who  was  heir  to  all  these  proud  acres.  Here 
with  his  own  surpassing  taste  he  had  planned  the 
walks  and  drives  and  beautified  the  lawns. 

In  an  unlooked-for  moment  this  only  son  was 


ALICE    E.    FREEMAN.  225 

stricken  with  a  fatal  disease ;  one  week  of  sickness 
ended  his  earthly  life,  and  his  father,  the  brilliant 
man  of  the  world,  the  successful  lawyer,  at  the 
acme  of  his  fame,  in  the  heyday  of  life,  bowed  his 
head  in  such  overwhelming  grief  that  his  hair 
became  white  as  snow  in  one  short  week,  and  every 
plan  and  purpose  was  changed.  His  hopes  and 
prospects  were  buried  under  the  green  mound  of 
earth  which  covered  that  little  form  around  which 
all  the  interests  of  his  life  had  clustered.  Hence- 
forth every  tree  and  smallest  flower  spoke  only  of 
his  boy. 

Thus  bereft,  he  heard  out  of  the  desolate  silence 
a  voice  like  the  sound  of  many  waters,  a  voice 
which  stirred  his  inmost  soul,  saying,  "I  have 
other  work  for  you  to  do  ;  let  the  treasures  which 
I  have  committed  to  your  keeping  be  used  for  fit- 
ting other  sons  and  daughters  to  do  the  great  work 
which  must  be  done  to  save  this  world  from  sin, 
and  to  make  its  waste  places  to  bud  and  blossom 
for  other  souls  as  you  have  made  your  little  spot 
of  earth  to  bring  forth  fruit  for  one.  Have  I  not 
so  loved  the  world  that  I  have  given  my  only  son 


226  ALICE    E.    FREEMAN. 

to  redeem  it  ? "  Thus  called,  the  ready  answer 
was :  "  Here,  Lord,  am  I ;  send  me." 

For  six  years  this  man  of  God  journeyed  far  and 
near  through  the  storms  of  winter  and  the  heat  of 
summer  to  consult  eminent  men  and  women  as  to 
the  wisest  way  to  use  his  fortune  for  the  highest 
and  broadest  education  of  the  young.  At  length, 
after  these  many  wearisome  journeys,  with  utter 
abandonment  of  ease  and  luxury,  even  of  the 
ordinary  comforts  of  life,  his  resolution  was  formed 
and  his  life-work  begun.  In  1872  the  corner-stone 
of  Wellesley  College  was  laid ;  and  a  structure  as 
beautiful  and  complete  as  any  in  the  world  has 
arisen,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  to  the  daughters 
of  this  country  a  broad  and  thorough  Christian 
education. 

"  Because,"  said  the  founder  of  Wellesley, 
"  educated  Christian  women  have  more  to  do  in 
forming  the  opinions  and  making  the  character 
of  men  than  all  other  influence  combined,  I  will 
build  a  hall  large  enough  to  accommodate  three 
hundred  girls." 

His  friends  smiled  at  his  enthusiasm,  and  thought 


ALICE    E.    FREEMAN.  227 

in  their  hearts  "  It  will  be  many  a  year  before 
three  hundred  girls  will  want  a  college  education." 
But  he  with  his  prophetic  vision  believed  other- 
wise. He  said  "  The  young  women  of  Wellesley 
College  shall  be  taught  every  thing  necessary  to 
make  a  true  woman.  They  shall  be  taught  that 
household  labor  is  as  honorable  as  the  study  of 
Latin  and  Greek ;  they  shall  be  taught  that  it  is 
honorable  and  womanly  and  Christian  for  a  girl 
whose  parents  are  obliged  to  sacrifice  the  ordinary 
comforts  of  life  to  give  her  an  education,  to  bear 
some  part  of  that  sacrifice."  Here  again  many 
friends  of  the  enterprise  shook  their  heads  and 
questioned  the  feasibility  of  such  a  plan. 

During  these  years  of  waiting  and  preparation, 
while  the  towers  and  turrets  of  the  "  College 
Beautiful  "  were  rising  from  the  hill-tops  among 
the  trees,  a  young  girl  in  a  Western  town  was 
quietly  pursuing  her  college  course  and  prepar- 
ing, all  unconsciously,  for  the  great  work  which 
awaited  her. 

Miss  Alice  E.  Freeman  was  born  in  Colesville, 
Broome  County,  N.  Y.  She  is  the  daughter  of 


228  ALICE    E.    FREEMAN. 

Dr.  James  and  Elizabeth  Freeman  and  is  the  eldest 
of  four  children.  Her  father,  with  a  longing  for 
education  which  nothing  could  check,  began  his 
professional  studies  after  the  birth  of  his  youngest 
daughter,  and  the  youthful  mother,  only  seventeen 
years  older  than  her  daughter,  was  left  with  the 
care  of  the  farm  and  the  household  affairs  while 
her  husband  studied  medicine  in  a  neighboring 
town ;  so  it  will  be  seen  that  the  daughter  is,  by 
an  act  of  predestination,  the  child  of  both  zeal  and 
culture. 

While  Miss  Freeman  was  still  very  young  Dr. 
Freeman  removed  with  his  family  to  the  little  vil- 
lage of  Windsor,  a  charming  spot  on  the  Susque- 
hanna,  whose  beautiful  natural  scenery  filled  the 
child  with  enthusiastic  delight.  She  early  began 
to  share  the  responsibilities  of  the  household  and 
became  the  nurse  and  constant  companion  of  the 
younger  children  ;  her  days  were  spent  in  teaching 
the  little  ones  in  the  woods  and  fields  the  love  of 
wild  flowers  and  of  all  beautiful  things  in  nature, 
and  this  is  perhaps  the  secret  of  her  own  enthusi- 
astic love  for  flowers  and  ferns  and  sunset  clouds, 


ALICE   E.    FREEMAN.  229 

and  this  the  fountain  from  which  she  drew  that 
elixir  which  has  thus  far  kept  her  as  young  in  feel- 
ing and  as  fair  in  face  as  when  she  roved  over  the 
fields  and  meadows  of  the  old  farm  and  at  six 
years  of  age  sat  down  on  a  mossy  bank  by  the 
roadside  and  with  the  three  little  children  fell  fast 
asleep.  With  remorseful  feelings  she  hastened 
with  her  charge  when  she  awoke,  the  baby  in  the 
little  wagon  and  the  other  two  tagging  behind,  to 
confess  to  her  mother  how  unfaithful  she  had  been, 
and  with  what  horror  she  contemplated  the  possi- 
bility that  the  children  might  have  been  stolen  by 
the  gypsies  while  she  slept.  Thus  early  she  began 
to  take  upon  herself  the  responsibilities  of  life 
and  thus  early  began  that  conscientious  discharge 
of  life's  duties  which  has  worked  out  for  her  a 
character  as  beautiful  as  it  is  rare. 

She  spent  the  years  of  her  happy  childhood  in 
this  picturesque  village,  and  here  at  the  old  acad- 
emy she  developed  a  love  for  study  which  made 
it  inevitable  that  she  should  desire  to  go  to  college. 
About  this  time  Michigan  University  opened  its 
doors  to  women.  At  once  Miss  Freeman's  reso- 


230  ALICE   E.    FREEMAN. 

lution  was  taken.  She  entered  the  University 
soon  after,  and  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the 
hazardous  experiment  of  co-education.  During 
the  four  years  of  her  college-life  her  simplicity  and 
directness  of  character,  her  thorough  womanly  self- 
respect,  her  faithful  scholarship  and  earnest  Chris- 
tian spirit  exerted  an  influence  which  cannot  be 
over-estimated.  Miss  Freeman  graduated  in  1876 
and  after  teaching  three  years  in  the  West  she 
was  called  to  the  chair  of  History  in  Wellesley 
College.  Her  success  in  this  department  was  so 
marked,  though  she  was  but  twenty-four  years  of 
age,  that  the  founder  of  the  College  often  said 
of  her :  "  There  is  the  future  President  of  Welles- 
ley  College." 

In  1880  the  founder  of  Wellesley  College,  Mr. 
Henry  F.  Durant,  died.  The  same  year  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  College  was  obliged  to  leave  on  ac- 
count of  ill  health.  In  the  exigency  of  the  moment, 
Miss  Freeman  was  invited  by  the  trustees  to  act  as 
President  until  some  one  could  be  found  to  fill  the 
place.  It  had  been  predicted  by  wise  men  and 
women  alike  that  there  was  not  a  woman  in  the 


ALICE   E.    FREEMAN.  231 

country  who  could  stand  at  the  head  of  a  large 
and  growing  college  and  administer  its  government 
successfully. 

Miss  Freeman  occupied  the  position  of  Presi- 
dent pro  tern  for  one  year,  and  so  remarkable  was 
her  influence  in  this  position,  such  was  her  aptitude 
m  governing  and  such  her  skill  and  tact  in  mana- 
ging the  affairs  of  the  college,  that  at  the  end  of 
the  year  she  was  invited  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the 
trustees  to  become  the  President  of  Wellesley  Col- 
lege ;  the  only  question  being  whether  with  her 
youth  and  her  delicate  physique  she  would  be  able 
to  bear  the  great  burden  of  work  which  the  posi- 
tion would  involve.  Six  years  have  passed  since 
Miss  Freeman  took  the  reins  of  government.  In 
her  administration  she  has  displayed  strength  and 
sweetness  of  character,  discernment  and  wise 
judgment,  ability  to  govern,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
influence,  and  to  lead  to  the  highest  and  best.  With 
the  playfulness  and  simplicity  of  a  child,  she  has 
a  deep  religious  nature  and  the  modest  reserve  of 
a  true  woman.  The  charm  of  her  personality  and 
the  wisdom  of  her  methods  have  won  all  hearts  ; 


232  ALICE    E.    FREEMAN. 

her  own  enthusiasm  is  contagious  and  every  stu- 
dent regards  her  as  a  personal  sympathetic  friend 
to  whom  she  may  go  at  all  hours  for  council  and 
comfort.  She  has  a  clarity  of  mental  vision  that 
is  rarely  equaled,  and  a  balanced  judgment  which 
is  seldom  questioned  ;  her  keen  insight  into  char- 
acter enables  her  to  detect  anything  wrong  in  the 
life  of  a  girl,  and  her  ready  tact  and  sympathy  lead 
her  always  to  apply  the  right  remedy. 

During  Miss  Freeman's  administration  the  num- 
ber of  students  has  more  than  doubled.  Four 
large  halls  and  two  cottages  have  been  added  and 
nearly  every  house  in  the  village  where  the  college 
is  located  is  filled  with  students.  Last  year  there 
were  fully  one  thousand  applicants,  and  at  the 
present  moment  the  number  of  those  who  are 
seeking  admission  to  the  college  is  larger  than 
ever  before. 

Miss  Freeman,  though  delicate  in  feature  and 
slight  in  figure,  has  a  power  of  endurance  which 
enables  her  to  accomplish  a  great  amount  of  work. 
She  is  working  out  her  own  theories,  the  most  im- 
portant of  which  she  thus  states  to  her  girls : 


ALICE   E.    FREEMAN.  333 

"  God  has  made  you  after  his  own  plan,  and  He 
places  you  just  where  He  wishes  you  to  work  with 
Him  to  bring  about  the  highest  results  for  your- 
self ;  He  has  given  you  every  opportunity.  Make 
yourself  what  you  will  —  remember  it  lies  with  you. 
God  can  make  no  mistakes." 

One  who  has  known  her  for  many  years  says  of 
Miss  Freeman : 

"  She  is  especially  esteemed  for  her  quick  sym- 
pathies, her  sincere  enthusiasm,  her  devotion  to 
the  cause  of  higher  education,  her  capacity  in 
carrying  out  her  convictions,  and  particularly  for 
her  most  lovely  Christian  charity  which  creates  an 
atmosphere  of  purity  and  earnestness  throughout 
all  her  work." 

Her  Alma  Mater,  in  just  acknowledgment  of  her 
work,  has  conferred  upon  her  the  degree  of  Ph.  D. 
Columbia  College  on  the  occasion  of  its  semi-cen- 
tennial conferred  upon  Miss  Freeman  with  other 
distinguished  literati  and  educators  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Letters. 


T 


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